| David Bell received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1980, where he specialized in critical theory and nineteenth-century narrative. His first book, Models of Power: Politics and Economics in Zola's Rougon-Macquart, deals with narrative structures and political representation in Zola's series. His second book, Circumstances: Chance in the Literary Text, analyzes the function of chance in the realist narratives of Balzac and Stendhal. He has also worked on science and technology in nineteenth-century France, concentrating specifically on technologies of communication and their impact on the way people perceive space and time. His most recent book, entitled Real Time: Accelerating Narrative from Balzac to Zola, explores the importance of speed and communication in Balzac, Stendhal, Dumas, and Zola and was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2004. His newest research deals with instantaneousness and terror in fin-de-siècle culture in France, a project in which he examines the increasingly rapid feedback loops created by instantaneous communication and action. He is co-editor of SubStance. Education:
- PhD The Johns Hopkins University, 1980
- MA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1976
- BA (cum laude) Davidson College, 1969
Research Interests:
Nineteenth-century French literature and culture; critical theory; literature and science; literature and technology. Representative Publications (More Publications)
- Real Time: Accelerating Narrative from Balzac to Zola. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
- Circumstances: Chance in the Literary Text. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
- "Here, There, Anywhere." Spec. issue "After 9/11: European Perspectives," Contemporary French Civilization 29:2 (Summer/Fall, 2005): 89-109.
- "Writing, Movement/Space, Democracy: On Jacques Rancière’s Literary History." Spec. issue "Jacques Rancière," SubStance 33:1 (2004): 126-40.
- "Infinite Archives." Spec. issue "Overload," SubStance 33:3 (Fall, 2004): 148-61.
- "Vitesse et présent dans Lucien Leuwen." L'Année stendhalienne 4 (2005): 149-61.
- "Gustave Le Rouge et La Conspiration des milliardaires: M.A.D. avant la lettre." Spec. issue "Science et littérature," Alliage 57-58 (2006): 169-76.
- "Technologies of Speed, Technologies of Crime." Spec. issue "Investigating Crime," Yale French Studies :108 (2005): 8-19.
Curriculum Vitae |
