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Toril Moi, James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies

Contact Info:

Office Location:	111 Art Museum
Office Phone:	+1 919 681 4971
Email Address:

Teaching (Fall 2024):

• LIT 460S.01, WEIL, BEAUVOIR, MURDOCH Synopsis

  Friedl Bdg 102, MW 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as ENGLISH 460S.01, GSF 460S.01, PHIL 460S.01)

• LIT 681S.01, WITTGENSTEIN AND LIT THEORY Synopsis

  Friedl Bdg 102, M 01:25 PM-03:55 PM

  (also cross-listed as ENGLISH 582S.01, PHIL 681S.01)

Education:

Dr. Art.	University of Bergen (Norway)	1985
Mag. art.	University of Bergen (Norway)	1980

Specialties:

French
Critical Theory
European Studies
French Literature
Comparative Literature
Gender Studies, Feminism, Women Studies, Queer Studies
Modernity and Modernism
Modern and Contemporary
Critical Theory, Philosophy
Comparative Studies: Translation, Travel Narratives, Trans-Culturality

Research Interests: Feminism, Modernism, Philosophy & Literature, and 19th & 20th Century European Literature

Current projects: The Emergence of European Modernism 1870-1914, Feminist Theory and Women Writers

Toril Moi works on feminist theory and women's writing. She also works quite broadly on the intersections of literature, philosophy and aesthetics. She is particularly interested in finding ways of reading literature with philosophy and philosophy with literature without reducing the one to the other.

Areas of special theoretical interest are psychoanalytic theory, French phenomenology (Sartre, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty), and ordinary language philosophy (Wittgenstein, Austin, Cavell).

Recently, Toril Moi has been working in three different areas: sexuality, sex, gender and the body with a particular emphasis on Simone de Beauvoir; ordinary language philosophy with a particular emphasis on Stanley Cavell; and 19th and 20th century European literature and theater with a particular emphasis on Henrik Ibsen.

Her books include Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory (1985; 2nd edition 2002), Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (1994); and What Is a Woman? And Other Essays (1999). She is the editor of The Kristeva Reader (1986), and of French Feminist Thought (1987). Her latest book, Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theatre, Philosophy (2006) won the Modern Language Associations Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for the best book in Comparative Literary Studies in 2007.

In spring 2008, the 2nd edition of her book Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (with a major new introductory chapter) will be published by Oxford University Press.

Toril Moi is now working on two projects: (1) The Emergence of European Modernism 1870-1914 and (2) Feminist Theory and Women Writers.

Areas of Interest:

Feminism
Simone de Beauvoir
Existentialism
Ordinary Language Philosophy
Aesthetics
French Women Writers
Theater
19th and 20th Century European Literature

Keywords:

women • feminism • literature • aesthetics • ordinary language philosophy • theater • existentialism

Curriculum Vitae

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Moi, T, Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy (2006), pp. xvi + 396 pages, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199202591
2. Moi, T, Sex, Gender and the Body: The Student Edition of What Is a Woman? (2005), pp. xv + 274 pages, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199276226 (Contains the first two essays in What Is a Woman? and a new preface..)
3. Moi, T, What Is a Woman? and Other Essays (January, 1999), pp. xv + 517 pages, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198186755
4. Moi, T, Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory (1985), pp. xviii + 206 pages, Methuen, ISBN 978-0415280129

Picture credit: Oscar Einzig Photography.