Pamela Genova

Pamela A. Genova

David Ross Boyd and Presidential Professor, French

I earned my Ph.D. in French Studies in the Department of French at the University of Illinois in 1991. My first academic position began that same year as an Assistant Professor of French in MLLL. Since then, I have been named a David Ross Boyd Professor and a Presidential Professor, and have also served as Department Chair and as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

My areas of research interest span 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century French literature and culture, and I enjoy working with various genres, from poetry to novels to the theatre. My work displays a particular emphasis on the interrelations among different art forms (literature, visual art, and music) and on the rich connections in East-West cultural dynamics. My publications include numerous articles and essays, as well as three single-authored books, two of which were awarded the annual book prize by the South Central MLA.

Among the courses I regularly teach are several graduate-level seminars in 19th- and 20th-century literature and culture, and at the undergraduate level, I have offered a variety of courses generally at the 2000, 3000, and 4000 levels, such as FR 3423, "Advanced French Composition," FR 4163, "Survey of French Literature II," and FR 4993, our capstone. I also developed and taught MLLL 1013, "Introduction to the French and Francophone World." Finally, I have offered on several occasions a cross-listed course, MLLL/ENGL 4003, "European Modernism and Beyond."

Education

Ph.D. in French Studies. The University of Illinois. 1991
M.A. in French Studies. The University of Illinois. 1986
B.A. in French Studies. The University of Kansas. 1983

Publications

Pamela A. Genova, “‘À chacun son Tokyo’: Marguerite Yourcenar’s Reading of Yukio Mishima as a Revolutionary Exemplar for Western Literary Art.” Contemporary French & Francophone Studies: Sites 23.5 (2020): 617-24. As an example of Yourcenar's syncretic cultural perspective, Mishima fascinated her, beyond their shared interest in homosexual themes; she identified in him a uniquely powerful and paradoxical icon of rebellion.
“Death as Cataclysm or Catharsis: Yves Bonnefoy’s Douve.” Contemporary French & Francophone Studies: Sites 24.2 (2020): 222-28. The focus is on one of Bonnefoy’s best known (and elusive) poetic works, presenting subtle juxtapositions of philosophical inquiry and linguistic experimentation, exploring metaphysical aspects of the human body.
Pamela A. Genova, “Beyond Orientalism: Roland Barthes’ Imagistic Structures of Japan.” Romance Studies 34.3-4 (2017): 1-16. From tea ceremonies to calligraphy, from sushi chefs to road signs, the iconography of the Japanese landscape is translated through Barthes’s necessarily subjective view, becoming something new, unarguably unique.
Pamela A. Genova, Writing Japonisme: Aesthetic Translation in Nineteenth-Century French Prose. Chicago: Northwestern UP, 2016. A trans-disciplinary examination of four key authors: de Goncourt, Zola, Huysmans, and Mallarmé. Japonisme, the influence of Japanese art in Western styles, surpasses the visual and enhances literature.
Pamela A. Genova, “André Gide: tient-il toujours son rang?” Le Bulletin des Amis d’André Gide 177-178 (January-April, 2013): 113-31. This internationally celebrated author exemplies the conventional French literary canon; recently, scholarly interest has turned toward lesser-known figures, often from Francophone countries other than France. Does he therefore still pertain?
Pamela A. Genova, Symbolist Journals: A Culture of Correspondence. London: Ashgate Press, 2002. My study centers on nineteenth-century French literary journals as an important development of the Symbolist poetic movement, particularly as an active realm for the diverse interdisciplinary interaction in French aesthetics.
Pamela A. Genova, André Gide dans le labyrinthe de la mythotextualité. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 1995. A rethinking of four key Greek mythological figures (Narcissus, Prometheus, Œdipus, and Theseus) around which Gide crafts an original use of intertextual techniques in his exploration of literary myth.

Writing Japonisme: Aesthetic Translation in Nineteenth-Century French Prose.

Twayne Companion to Contemporary World Literature from the Editors of “World Literature Today”.

Symbolist Journals: A Culture of Correspondence

André Gide dans le labyrinthe de la mythotextualité