A former student at the Ecole normale supérieure (Paris, 1994-1999), Laurent Dubreuil holds an agrégation (1996) as well as a doctorate in French Literature (Bordeaux-III, 2001), and a second doctorate in Philosophy and Women’s studies (Paris-VIII, 2002). The main hypothesis of Professor Dubreuil’s research could be summed up in the following terms. Literature expresses a thought that defies the boundaries of rationality and undoes the very structure of concepts. Therefore, literary oeuvres are particularly at odds with philosophy. But they also respond to the disciplines: history, psychiatry, anthropology, politics... The understanding of such an extra-ordinary process may assure the possibility of a broader critical discourse which would be able in turn to question other artistic expressions and social practices. Various aspects of such problems are explored in Dubreuil’s book on possession and reading (in Maupassant, Artaud and Blanchot) and in the some 35 articles he has written. Dubreuil has edited or co-edited 4 special issues of Labyrinthe, an interdisciplinary journal. He is currently completing a book on language and social order in (post)colonial French and American empires (18th Century-present). He is also working on two other manuscripts. One is about friendship in ancient Greek thought and French contemporary philosophy; the other focuses on the literary frontiers of knowledge.
Selected Publications:
De l’Attrait à la possession. Maupassant, Artaud, Blanchot , Paris, Hermann, 2003.
"What Is Literature's Now?", in New Literary History, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
"Leaving Politics: Bios, Zoe, Life in Agamben, Esposito, Aristotle", in Diacritics, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
"Forms and Reforms in French Higher Education - about the Ecole normale supérieure", in Traces, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2007.
"Pour une critique de la bande dessinée" [co-author], in Labyrinthe, # 25, Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2006.
"Histoire d'une hantise (Kafka, Sartre)", in Sillage de Kafka, Ph. Zard ed., Paris, Le Manuscrit, 2006.
"The Presences of Deconstruction" [on Hélène Cixous], in New Literary History, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006-1.
"Projets d’histoire universelle," in L’Histoire Bataille [on Georges Bataille], L. Ferri & C. Gauthier ed., Paris/Geneva, Ecole nationale des Chartes/Droz, 2006.
"L’apolitique de Maupassant," in Littérature, # 136, Paris, Larousse, 2004.
"Chroniques de la fin du monde," in Labyrinthe, # 19, Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2004.
"La littérature comme amitié. Guibert disciple de Foucault," in Le roman français au tournant du XXIe siècle, M. Dambre et al. ed., Paris, Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, 2004.
"L’insurrection » & « Pensées fantômes" [on Jacques Rancière], in Labyrinthe, # 17, Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2004.
Edited Journal Issues:
Labyrinthe. Atelier interdisciplinaire, # 25 (special issue on comics and bande dessinée) Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2006. [Co-ed.]
Labyrinthe. Atelier interdisciplinaire, # 24 (special issue Faut-il être postcolonial ?), Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2006.
Labyrinthe. Atelier interdisciplinaire, # 19 (special issue Le bel aujourd’hui : déclins, décadences, apocalypses), Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2004.
Labyrinthe. Atelier interdisciplinaire, # 14 (special issue Constructions de la raison), Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2003.
Research
Interests:
19 th & 20 th C. French literature.
(Post)colonial theories and Francophone literatures.
20 th Century French & German Philosophy.
Ancient Greek thought.
French & American comics and cinema (from the sixties to now)
Interdisciplinary practices and undisciplined discourses.
Meta-critical concerns.
Supernatural texts and phenomena (from possessions to absolute loves).
Recent
Courses:
Readings in modern French literature and culture
Readings in francophone literatures and cultures
The novel as a masterwork
Races, métissage, hybridity
The Haitian Experience
The Extraordinary: 19th C. French Literature and Philosophy
Cinema and Writing in France and francophone countries
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