Helen Solterer, Professor of Romance Studies

Helen Solterer

Please note: Helen has left the "Jewish Studies Program Certificate" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

My research and teaching focus on premodern literature and culture in French and their interplay with contemporary thought; twentieth-century French cultural history; writing through gender.

I am currently completing, with the support of the Guggenheim Foundation, Timely Fictions in French,  an almanac of premodern literary and graphic arts.  Published works include: Migrants shaping Europe, past and present: Multilingual literatures, arts, and cultures, ed. with Vincent Joos (Manchester, forthcoming, 2022);  James Joyce Remembered, edition 2022 (C.P. Curran), ed. with Alice Ryan (UCD, forthcoming, 2022); Un Moyen Âge républicain: les paradoxes du théâtre en temps de guerre (Presses Paris-Sorbonne, 2014) Medieval Roles for Modern Times (Penn State 2010); The Master and Minerva (California 1995); European Medieval Studies Under Fire, 1919-1945, an edited collection (JMEMS, Duke. 1995).  

Students interested in researching premodern fiction in French are particularly welcome. 

Contact Info:
Office Location:  217B Language Center, Durham, NC 27708
Email Address: send me a message
Web Page:  https://sites.duke.edu/solterer/

Teaching (Fall 2024):

  • FRENCH 505P.01P, WHEN FICTION MEETS HISTORY Synopsis
    Languages 305, W 11:45 AM-02:15 PM
  • FRENCH 505S.01, WHEN FICTION MEETS HISTORY Synopsis
    Languages 312, Tu 11:45 AM-02:15 PM
    (also cross-listed as ROMST 504S.01)
Office Hours:

Wednesdays, 5-6 pm.
& by appt.
Education:

Ph.D.University of Toronto (Canada)1986
Boursière, Ambassade de France,Université de Paris VII1983
Masters of ArtUniversity of Toronto1981
Bachelor of ArtsGeorgetown University1978
Year of StudyUniversity College of Dublin1978
Specialties:

French
Early Modern
European Studies
Performance Studies
Gender Studies, Feminism, Women Studies, Queer Studies
Historicism
Research Interests:

Pre-modern French Literature and Culture; Theater; Gender Criticism; Modern French Cultural History

Curriculum Vitae
Current Ph.D. Students  

  • Julie Singer  
  • Brooke Heidenreich Findley  
  • Daniel De Cillis  
Representative Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Solterer, H, Un Moyen Âge républicain : paradoxes du théâtre en temps de guerre (2014), Presses universitaires Paris-Sorbonne, (translated by Chénetier Alev, M.) [un-moyen-age-republicain]
  2. Solterer, H, Medieval Roles in Modern Times: Theater and the Battle for the French Republic (February, 2010), pp. 271 pages, 40 figures pages, The Pennsylvania State University Press
  3. Solterer, H, "Aimer un pays tout autre: Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier, & Compagnie”, in Sens, Rhétorique, et Musique : Études réunies en hommage à Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet, edited by Lefèvre, S; Lucken, C; Doudet, E (2015), pp. 769-782, Champion
  4. Solterer, H, Parcours d’un militant de théâtre: Moussa Abadi, in Le texte critique : expérimenter le théâtre et le cinéma aux XXe et XXIe siècles, edited by Alev, VVEMC (2013), pp. 207-220., Presses universitaires François-Rabelais
  5. Solterer, H; Dominguez, V, Réactivations scéniques, in Le Théâtre du XIIe au XIIe siècles, edited by Halévy, O; Parussa, G; Smith, D (2014), L’Avant-Scène
  6. Solterer, H, “Strange or Elegant or Foul Matter,”, Exemplaria, 25 (2013) (2013), pp. 79-92 (A Book-review essay.) [1041257312Z.00000000026]
  7. Solterer, H, Timely Fictions (2017)
  8. H. Solterer, "Love to Hate: A Premodern Legacy?" (2013)
  9. Solterer, H, Teaching Free Speech in Times of War, edited by I com, InsiderHigherEd.com (September, 2007)
  10. Solterer, H, The master and Minerva: Disputing women in French medieval culture (September, 2023), pp. 1-301, University of California Press, ISBN 9780520088351 (co-awarded The Modern Language Association Scaglione Prize, 1995.)  [abs]

Helen Solterer received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 1986. Her research and teaching focus on medieval & early modern vernacular writing, modern cultural history, and contemporary theater. She has published The Master and Minerva: Disputing Women in French Medieval Culture (California, 1995), which won the MLA Scaglione Prize. Her current book, Playing for Life: Medieval Roles for Modern Times, explores the aesthetic, political and personal effects of the Middle Ages for the twentieth century. It has led to the essays "Gustave Cohen at Pont-Holyoke: The Drama of Belonging to France" (2005), "Performer le passé" in Paul Zumthor ou l’invention permanente. Critique, histoire, poésie (1998), and "European Medieval Studies Under Fire, 1919-45," a special issue of The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies that she edited in 1997. She continues to write on free speech and verbal injury; essays include "The Freedoms of Fiction for Gender in Premodern France" (2002), and "Fiction vs. Defamation: The Quarrel over the Romance of the Rose" Medieval History Journal (1999).