Nicolas Russell
Education
Ph.D. (French) University of Virginia
M.A. (French) University of Virginia
B.A. (French and Philosophy) University of Pittsburgh
Research Interests
Early Modern France; memory studies; philosophical approaches to literature; cultural, intellectual, and conceptual history
Publications
Books
Transformations of Memory and Forgetting in Sixteenth-Century France: Marguerite de Navarre, Pierre de Ronsard, Michel de Montaigne. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2011.
French Ceremonial Entries in the Sixteenth Century: Event, Image, Text (volume co-edited with Hélène Visentin). Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies / Essays and Studies, 2007.
Articles
“Construction et représentation de la mémoire collective dans les entrées triomphales au XVIe siècle,” Renaissance and Reformation 32.2 (Spring 2009) 53-72.
“The Multilayered Production of Meaning in Sixteenth-Century French Ceremonial Entries,” (co-authored with Hélène Visentin) in French Ceremonial Entries in the Sixteenth Century: Event, Image, Text. Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies / Essays and Studies, 2007. pp. 15-26.
“Collective Memory before and after Halbwachs,” The French Review 79.4 (March 2006) 792-804.
“Petite histoire de la mémoire,” pts. 1, 2, and 3, Journal des trois théâtres 13 (February 2005) 31-33; 14 (March 2005) 27-29; 16 (September 2005) 27-29.
“Steps Toward a Rhetoric of Judgment in Montaigne’s ‘De Democritus et Heraclitus’ (1.50),”Neophilologus 85.2 (April 2001) 177-92.
Presentations
“How Memory Constitutes Societies in Louis Le Roy’s Vicissitude,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Washington D.C., 22-24 March 2012.
“Louis Le Roy’s Vicissitude ou variété des choses en l’univers: Cultural Memory and the Transformation of Societies,” Guthrie Workshop, Dartmouth College “Memory and Community in 16th Century France,” Hanover, 13-14 May 2011.
“Jeux d’ombre: Parallel Transformations of Personal and Collective Memory in Early Modern France,” Invited Speaker, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, 12 April 2011.
“Conceptions of Collective Memory in France: Ethics and Identity,” French and Italian Departmental Colloquium, Colby College, Waterville, 11 November 2010.
“The Permutations of Conversion in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron 32,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Montreal, 14-17 October 2010.
“Metaphorical Explorations of Human Agency: Fire and Water in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron,” Guest lecturer, Colby College, Waterville, 22 February 2010.
“Memory’s Place in Ronsard’s Poetic Theory,” Modern Language Association Convention, Philadelphia, 27-30 December 2009.
“Faire brusler la glace: Metaphorical Explorations of Sin and the Will in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Los Angeles, 19-21 March 2009.
“Collective Memory’s History in France,” Liberal Arts Lunch Lecture, Smith College, Northampton, 21 February 2008.
“Memory’s Metamorphoses in Early Modern Europe,” Kahn Institute Faculty Seminar: The Nature and Uses of Memory, Smith College, Northampton, 22-23 January 2008.
“Contempler ceste doulce memoire: Carnal and Spiritual Memories in Marguerite de Navarre’s La Navire,” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, 19-21 April 2007.
“Collective Memory in the Royal Entries of the Valois: The Case of Charles de Navière’s La Renommée,” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Miami, 21-23 March 2007.
“Remys en oubliance: Spiritual Journeys of Forgetting in Marguerite de Navarre’s Miroir de l’ame pecheresse,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Salt Lake City, 26-29 October 2006.
“The Role of Collective Memory in the Historiography of Le Roy and La Popelinière, ”Renaissance Society of America Conference, San Francisco, 23-25 March 2006.
“Ronsard, Lethe, and the Styx: Mythological Transformations of Forgetting in the Renaissance,” (Invited Speaker) Maison Française d’Oxford – Early Modern French Seminar, Oxford, UK, 12 May 2005.
“Collective Memory before and after Halbwachs,” Invited Speaker, The Enigmatic Image: Symposium in Honor of Daniel Russell, Pittsburgh, 23 April 2005.
“Ronsard, Lethe, and the Styx,” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, 21-22 April 2005.
“Royal Entries in Early Modern France: Pedagogy and Publication,” (guest lecture with Hélène Visentin) North American Society for Court Studies/Five College Renaissance Seminar, University of Massachusetts Renaissance Center, Amherst, 4 March 2004.
“Collective Memory before Halbwachs,” Cultural Memory in France: Margins and Centers, Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, University of Florida, Tallahassee, 30 October – 1 November 2003.
“Remembering the Fall: The Psychology of Redemption in a Letter from Guillaume Briçonnet to Marguerite de Navarre,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, San Antonio, 24-27 October 2002.
“Writing on the Heart: Love and Memory in Ronsard’s Amours,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Denver, 25-28 October 2001.
“Digne de Mémoire: The Construction of Collective Memory in Montaigne’s Essais,” Time, Memory, Text Conference, Binghamton, 23-24 March 2001.
“Montaigne et la rhétorique du jugement,” Invited Speaker, Smith College, Northampton, 29 January 2001.
“Textual Memory and Montaigne’s Self-Portrait,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Cleveland, 2-5 November 2000.
“The Ethics of Forgetting in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron,” Invited Speaker, Reed College, Portland, 21 February 2000.
“Memory and the Exploration of the Self in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Saint Louis, 24-27 October 1999.
“Montaigne, Donald Frame, and Michael Screech: Translation or Interpretation? A study of essay 1.28,” Purdue University Conference on Romance Languages, Literatures, and Film, West Lafayette, 10-12 October 1996.
Course Information
FRN 470 Love, Marriage, and Friendship in Early Modern France
FRN 375 Early Modern France On Screen
FRN 370 Introduction to Reading French Texts (Theme: Truth, Fiction, and Lies)
FRN 201 Intermediate French
FRN 101 Elementary French
