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Helen Solterer, Associate Professor, Romance Studies; French

Contact Info:

Office Location:	217B Language Center
Email Address:

Teaching (Fall 2025):

• FRENCH 332S.01, SHORT STORIES FOR LONG LIVES Synopsis

  Languages 305, MW 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

• FRENCH 505P.01P, WHEN FICTION MEETS HISTORY Synopsis

  Languages 114A, W 12:00 PM-01:00 PM

• FRENCH 505S.01, WHEN FICTION MEETS HISTORY Synopsis

  Languages 305, Tu 12:00 PM-02:30 PM

  (also cross-listed as HISTORY 505S.01, ROMST 504S.01)

Education:

Ph.D.	University of Toronto (Canada)	1986
Boursière, Ambassade de France,	Université de Paris VII	1983
Masters of Art	University of Toronto	1981
Bachelor of Arts	Georgetown University	1978
Year of Study	University College of Dublin	1978

Specialties:

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

Research Interests:

Pre-modern French Literature and Culture

Keywords:

Europe • France • Literature • Medieval • Pre-Modern

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 and early modern vernacular culture. She has published The Master and Minerva: Disputing Women in French Medieval Culture (California, 1995), which won the MLA Scaglione Prize. She continues to write on questions of verbal violence in "Flaming Words," Romanic Review (1995) and "States of Siege," New Medieval Literatures (1998). Her current book project, Playing the Dead, explores the question of revivalism. It has led to the essays "The Waking of Medieval Theatricality, 1935-1995," New Literary History (1996), "European Medieval Studies Under Fire, 1919-45," a special issue of The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (1997) that she edited and "Performer le passé" in Paul Zumthor ou l’invention permanente. Critique, histoire, poésie (1998).