Leslie Boldt

Professor

Retired
lboldt@brocku.ca

State University of New York at Buffalo, Ph. D.  (1985) FRENCH
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., Summer Program in Applied Linguistics (1983)
State University of New York at Buffalo, M.A.  (1979) FRENCH
Brock University, B.A.  (1975) FRENCH AND GERMAN

My principal area of research is 20th Century French Literature, in particular, works written in the period between the two World Wars.  I have published and delivered papers on the works of Artaud, Camus, Malraux, Bataille, Kristeva, Blanchot and Baudrillard among other authors, and am particularly interested in Surrealism, Existentialism and the representation of subjectivity in French Literature produced during the decades of the first half of the 20th Century.  I am also interested in the intersections between the visual and literary art of France of this period, as well as in manifestations of Orientalism in French Literature.

Selected List of Publications and Conferences

a) Books, chapters in books, refereed articles

Boldt, L. translation of Georges Bataille’s L’expérience intérieure with translator’s preface.  Inner Experience.   Albany: SUNY Press, 1988, pp. 209, xxviii.

Boldt-Irons, L., ed. and trans. On Bataille: Critical Essays , with editor’s introduction.  Contributors: D. Hollier, J. Kristeva, S. Suleiman, J. Baudry, R. Gasché, P. Smith, A. Plotnisky, and others. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995, pp. 333.

______  “Sacrifice and Violence in Bataille’s erotic fiction: Reflections from/upon the mise en abîme “, in Georges Bataille: Writing the Sacred , ed. C. Gill, Warwick Studies in European Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 91-104.

______  “Irony/Humour in the Fast Lane: the Route to Desire in L’Abbé C. ” Romanic Review , vol. 85, no. 2, March 1994, pp. 271-291.

______  “Anarchy and Androgyny in Artaud’s Héliogabale ou l’anarchiste couronné “, Modern Language Review , vol. 91, no. 4, October 1996, pp. 866-877.

______ “Military Discipline and Revolutionary Exaltation: The Dismantling of L’illusion lyrique in Malraux’s L’espoir and Bataille’s Le bleu du ciel ”, Romanic Review 91: 4, Nov. 2000, pp. 481-503.

______  “Bataille and Baudrillard: From a General Economy to the Transparency of Evil”, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities , vol. 6, no. 2, August 2001, pp. 79 – 89.

________  “Bataille and Blanchot on The Last Man”, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, vol. 11, no. 2, August 2006, pp. 3 – 19.

b) Conference presentations

Invited Plenary Address: “The Violence of Bataille’s Literary Image: Reflections From/Upon the Mise en Abîme “, International Conference on Georges Bataille, University of London, Birkbeck College, London, England, May, 1991.

MLA Convention, New York, N.Y., Dec. 1992.  Organized and chaired a special session entitled Bataille: Pre-War, Post-War. Co-presenters: Susan Suleiman, Alan Stoekl.  My presentation entitled: “Glory as unproductive Expenditure: Bataille’s Writings on World War II”.

Selected list of Courses taught at Brock

  • FREN 2F03   Literature and Culture: The French-Speaking World
  • FREN 2P99   Culture and Civilization of France to 1700
  • FREN 3P53   Twentieth-Century French Literature to 1935
  • FREN 3P65   Culture and Civilization of France from 1700 to the present
  • FREN 3P95    French Literature and Culture in Film
  • FREN 4P55    Twentieth-Century French Literature from 1935 to 1970
  • FREN 4P56    Twentieth-Century French Literature after 1970
  • FREN 4V61    Specific Research Topics in French Literature: Georges Bataille
  • FREN 4V68    Specific Research Topics in French Literature: Antonin Artaud
  • FREN 4V74    Specific Research Topics in French Literature: Maurice Blanchot
  • FREN 4V77    Specific Research Topics in French Literature: André Malraux
  • FREN 4V81    Specific Research Topics in French Literature: Jean-Paul Sartre
  • MLLC 3P99    Modern Narratives