Helen Solterer | Scholars@Duke

Helen Solterer
Professor of Romance Studies

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.

Office Hours

Wednesdays, 5-6 pm.
& by appt.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2010

Contact Information

217B Language Center, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708-0257
hsolt@duke.edu (919) 660-3100
Duke Faculty Page

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Toronto (Canada) 1986
Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Associate Professor, Theater Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2006 - 2011
- Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies in French and Italian Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2010
- Associate Professor with Tenure, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1994 - 2010
- Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009 - 2010
- Assistant Professor, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1987 - 1994
- Instructor, University, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1986
Recognition
In the News
- FEB 16, 2022 Duke University Medium
  
  When James Joyce's Lingua Franca Is a Family Affair
- APR 28, 2020 Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
  
  Duke Guggenheim Fellow Helen Solterer on What Makes Literature Feel Timely
- FEB 7, 2020 Irish Times
  
  Helen Solterer Dug Through Family Archives. She Found a Close Link to James Joyce
- MAY 22, 2018
  
  Romance Studies Celebrates Gift For First Endowed Professorship In French & Francophone Studies
- DEC 9, 2016
  
  New Program Connects Duke Community with Global Citizen Journalists
- JAN 27, 2015
  
  After Charlie Hebdo: Faculty Discuss the Challenge to Freedom of Expression
- JAN 12, 2015 The News & Observer
  
  Raleigh protesters show solidarity with France
- NOV 14, 2014
  
  Centennial Poppies: Duke Scholars Recall the Legacy of World War I
- OCT 10, 2014
  
  'Fugitive Places': Helen Solterer on the Literature of Patrick Modiano
- SEP 25, 2014
  
  Same-Sex Marriage: A Comparative Look at North Carolina and France
- APR 18, 2014
  
  A Personal Donation to Duke Libraries from the Tunisian Uprising
- SEP 27, 2013
  
  Dodging Bullets in the Lebanese Civil War
Awards & Honors
Expertise
Global Scholarship
- Expertise
  - France (Country)
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Curran, C. P. James Joyce Remembered, edition 2022. Edited by Helen Solterer and Alice Ryan, University College Dublin Press, 2022.
  - Solterer, H. Timely Fictions (In preparation). 2017.
  - Solterer, H. Un Moyen Âge républicain : paradoxes du théâtre en temps de guerre. Translated by M. Chénetier Alev, Presses universitaires Paris-Sorbonne, 2014.
    Link to Item
  - Solterer, H. Medieval Roles in Modern Times: Theater and the Battle for the French Republic. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010.
  - Solterer, H. European Medieval Studies under Fire, 1919-45. Edited by H. Solterer, vol. 27, 1997.
  - Solterer, H. The Master and Minerva: Disputing Women in French Medieval Culture. University of California Press, 1995.
  - Solterer, Helen, and Vincent Joos, editors. Migrants shaping Europe, past and present: Multilingual literatures, arts, and cultures. Manchester University Press.
  - Solterer, Helen, and Vincent Joos, editors. Migrants shaping Europe, past and present: Multilingual literatures, arts, and cultures. Manchester University Press.
- Academic Articles
  - Solterer, H. “A timely villon: Anachrony and premodern poetic fiction.” New Literary History, vol. 52, no. 2, June 2021, pp. 311–34. Scopus, doi:10.1353/nlh.2021.0014.
    Full Text
  - Solterer, H. ““Strange or Elegant or Foul Matter,”.” Exemplaria, 25 (2013), 2013, pp. 79–92.
    Link to Item
  - Solterer, H. “review of Jody Enders, Murder by Accident: Medieval Theater, Modern Media, Critical Intentions.” H France Review, vol. 10 (October), 2010.
  - Solterer, H. “review of Carol Symes, "A Common Stage:Theater and Public Life in Medieval Arras.” Theatre Survey, vol. 51, 2010, pp. 135–37.
  - Solterer, H. “Le Jeu de Robin et Marion,” “Le Jeu de la Feuillée,” “La Farce de Maître Pathelin, Mystères et Moralités," Le Mystère de la Passion" [articles on medieval theater]. Microsoft, 2001.
  - Solterer, H. “Fiction versus Defamation: The Quarrel over the Romance of the Rose.” The Medieval History Journal, vol. 2, 1999, pp. 111–41.
  - Solterer, H. “Performing pasts: A dialogue with Paul Zumthor.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 27, no. 3, Duke University Press, 1997, pp. 595–640.
    Link to Item
  - Solterer, H. “The Waking of Medieval Theatricality, Paris 1935-1995.” New Literary History, vol. 27, 1996, pp. 257–90.
  - Solterer, H. “The Waking of Medieval Theatricality: Paris 1935-1995.” New Literary History, vol. 27, no. 3, 1996, pp. 357–90. Manual, doi:10.1353/nlh.1996.0041.
    Full Text
  - SOLTERER, H. “Seeing, Hearing, Tasting Woman : The Senses of Medieval Reading.” Comparative Literature, vol. 46, no. 2, Duke University Press, 1994, pp. 129–45. Manual, doi:10.2307/1771574.
    Full Text Link to Item
  - SOLTERER, H. “Dismembering, Remembering the Châtelain de Couci.” Romance Philology, vol. 46, no. 2, Nov. 1992, pp. 103–24.
    Link to Item
  - SOLTERER, H. “Figures for Female Militancy in Medieval France.” Signs, vol. 16, no. 2, 1991, pp. 522–49. Manual, doi:10.1086/494682.
    Full Text Link to Item
  - SOLTERER, H. “Letter-Writing & Picture Reading: Medieval Textuality and the "Bestiaire d'amour".” Word & Image, vol. 5, no. 1, 1989, pp. 131–47.
    Link to Item
- Book Sections
  - Solterer, H. “Another Land's End of Literature.” Founding Feminisms in Medieval Studies Essays in Honor of E. Jane Burns, Boydell & Brewer, 2016, pp. 153–68.
  - “"Another Land’s End of Literature”.” Founding Feminisms in Medieval Studies, Boydell & Brewer, 2016, pp. 153–68.
  - Solterer, H. “"Aimer un pays tout autre: Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier, & Compagnie”.” Sens, Rhétorique, et Musique : Études Réunies En Hommage à Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet, edited by S. Lefèvre et al., Champion, 2015, pp. 769–82.
  - Solterer, H., and Véronique Dominguez. “Réactivations scéniques.” Le Théâtre Du XIIe Au XIIe Siècles, edited by Olivier Halévy et al., L’Avant-Scène, 2014.
  - Solterer, H. “Parcours d’un militant de théâtre: Moussa Abadi.” Le Texte Critique : Expérimenter Le Théâtre et Le Cinéma Aux XXe et XXIe Siècles, edited by Valérie Vignaux et Marion Chénetier Alev, Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, 2013, pp. 207-220.
  - Solterer, H. ““Jouer le Moyen Âge: Gustave Cohen et la troupe théophilienne,”.” Les Pères Des Études Médiévales: Examen Critique de La Constitution d’un Savoir Académique, edited by Marie Bouhaïk-Gironès et al., Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2010, pp. 255-281[8figures].
  - Solterer, H. “Theatre and Theatricality.” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 181–94.
  - Solterer, H. “Making Names, Breaking Lives: Women & Injurious Language.” Cultural Performances in Medieval France: Essays in Honor of Nancy Freeman, edited by Eglal Doss-Quinby et al., Boydell & Brewer, 2007, pp. 207–21.
  - Solterer, H. “Gustave Cohen at Pont-Holyoke : The Drama of Belonging to France.” Artists, Intellectuals and World War II, edited by C. Benfey and K. Remmler, University of Massachusetts Press, 2006, pp. 145–61.
  - Solterer, Helen. “Defense of Women.” Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, edited by Susan Stuard et al., Routledge, 2005, pp. 64–68.
  - Solterer, H. “La Belle Dame sans Merci.” Medieval Women: An Encyclopedia, edited by Katharina M. Wilson and Nadia Margolis, New York: Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 80–84.
  - Solterer, H. “The Freedoms of Fiction for Gender in Premodern France.” Gender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance, edited by Thelma S. Fenster and Clare A. Lees, New York: Palgrave Press, 2002, pp. 135–63.
  - Solterer, H. “Performer le passé.” Paul Zumthor Ou l’invention Permanente. Critique, Histoire, Poésie, edited by Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet and Christopher Lucken, Droz, 1998, pp. 117–59.
  - co-authored, Christopher, et al. “Feminism and the Discipline of Old French Studies: "Une Bele Disjointure".” Medievalism in a Modernist Temper, edited by R Howard Bloch and Stephen G. Nichols, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, pp. 225–66.
  - Solterer, H. M. “"Amériques prémodernes ? Départ pour le grand Nord”.” Poétiques de Paul Zumthor, edited by H. M. éds. Jean-René Valette, Idelette Muzart-Fonseca dos Santos., Garnier.
- Other Articles
  - Solterer, H., and J. Delabroy. “Teaching Abroad With Obama.” Insidehighered.Com, 2008.
  - Solterer, H. “Teaching Free Speech in Times of War.” Insiderhighered.Com, Sept. 2007.
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
- FRENCH 335: Free Speech: France-USA 2022
- FRENCH 411: Biography, Life Writing, Autofiction 2022
- FRENCH 557: Cultural Memory 2022
- FRENCH 557P: Cultural Memory Preceptorial 2022
- HISTORY 420: Biography, Life Writing, Autofiction 2022
- HISTORY 557: Cultural Memory 2022
- LIT 420: Biography, Life Writing, Autofiction 2022
- LIT 557: Cultural Memory 2022
- PJMS 335: Free Speech: France-USA 2022
- RIGHTS 335: Free Speech: France-USA 2022
- ROMST 715: Cultural Memory 2022
- FRENCH 335: Free Speech: France-USA 2020
- PJMS 335: Free Speech: France-USA 2020
- RIGHTS 335: Free Speech: France-USA 2020
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
- Panelist. James Joyce Remembered, edition 2022, Book Launch. Museum of Literature, Dublin. March 2022 2022
Service to the Profession
Service to Duke

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Previous Appointments & Affiliations

In the News

Awards & Honors

Global Scholarship

Expertise

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Other Articles

Recent Courses

Presentations & Appearances

Outreach & Engaged Scholarship

Service to the Profession

Service to Duke