My research focuses mostly on the study of naturalist writer Emile Zola’s tormented relationship to Victor Hugo, his literary precursor. While a number of my articles have dealt with the central hypothesis that Zola’s twenty-novel series Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893) can be read as a “psychotext” in which Zola attempts to work out his complicated relation to the cumbersome literary father, Victor Hugo (1802-1885), I have begun to examine that relationship through the lense of Melanie Klein’s psychonalytical theories which give primacy to the mother. I now posit that Zola’s difficult relationship to Hugo’s corpus echoes in many ways the infant's tormented relationship to the mother’s body in the paranoid-schizoid position.
Marie-Sophie Armstrong
Associate Professor Emerita
610.758.3086
ma07@lehigh.edu
0031 - Williams Hall
Education:
Ph.D. 20th century French Literature. University of Oregon. Dissertation topic: "Un Balcon en forêt de Julien Gracq: Une allégorie de l'Ecriture." (1986)
M.A. French Literature. University of Oregon. (1982)
BA (licence d’anglais). English. Sorbonne University. Paris. (1979)
B.A. Translation (French, English, German). Institut Supérieur d'Interprétariat et de Traduction, Paris. (1979)
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Additional Interests
- 19th century French Fiction (Zola, Hugo)
- Naturalism
- 20th century French Fiction
Research Statement
Biography
I grew up in France (Troyes, Champagne) and fell in love with the US when I spent a year in Oregon as an exchange student. My "extracurricular" interests include yoga, voice, and jewelry making.
Associate Professor of French: 1992-present, Lehigh University.
Assistant Professor of French: 1986-1992, Lehigh University.
Edited volumes
Re-Reading Zola and Worldwide Naturalism: Miscellanies in Honour of Anna Gural-Migdal, ed. Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt. Marie-Sophie Armstrong, and Riikka Rossi (Cambridge Scholars: 2013).
Articles in edited volumes
“Marius Roux et Emile Zola, ou l’écriture à quatre mains ” in Re-Reading Zola and Worldwide Naturalism: Miscellanies in Honour of Anna Gural-Migdal. (2013): 225-239, Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt, Marie-Sophie Armstrong and Riikka Rossi.
“Figures de voleurs/scripteurs dans le roman des origines” in Zola et le naturalisme en Europe et aux Amériques : Contaminations et influences d’un genre, Anna Gural-Migdal et Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt éds. (New York : Edwin Mellen Press, 2006) : 81-95.
"The opening Chapter of La fortune des Rougon, or the darker side of Zolian writing." In Emile Zola, Janyce Marson, Harold Bloom, Henry W. eds. Bloom's Modern Critical Views Series. (New Chelsea House, 2004): 185-204.
Also appeared in Dalhousie French Studies 44 (1998): 39-53.
"Une lecture onomastique de ‘L’Hôte’ de Camus’" in Le Texte et ses langages, Raymond Gay-Crosier, ed. (Paris : Minard, 1991) : 115-137.
Articles
“Le Coq, la pierre et l’ingénieur: ‘La Pierre qui pousse,’ ou Camus au pays de La Fontaine,” La Revue des lettres modernes (Albert Camus) 26 (2019): 47-59.
“L'assommoir ou les déboires du premier objet, ” Australian Journal of French Studies 56.3 (2019): 1-16.
“Le système des vitrines dans Le ventre de Paris, ou la représentation conflictuelle du premier objet.” Neophilologus 102.3 (2018) :355-367.
“Vers les fondements psychiques de l’appropriation littéraire chez Zola.” Excavatio 27 (2016) https://sites.ualberta.ca/~aizen/excavatio/archives/v27.htm
“L’Assommoir et la scène du fiacre de Madame Bovary – Vers une énergétique tu texte.” Les cahiers naturalistes 87 (2013): 13-28.
“’Venez ordure! Perspectives kleiniennes sur la souillure de Pauline Quenu dans Le ventre de Paris.” Dix-Neuf 17.2 (2013): 210-223
“Le chapitre de ‘Jenlain ‘ ou la mise en abyme fantasmatique de Germinal.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies (2008-09) : 81-96.
“Son Excellence Eugère Rougon et la problématique de l’analité.” Excavatio 23 (2008): 280-293.
“Impair et père, ou le roman invisible des Rougon-Macquart.” Les Cahiers naturalistes 80 (2006): 1-13.
“L'archange et l'aigle. Tournier face à Hugo dans Le Medianoche amoureux.” French Forum 30.1 (2005): 107-119.
“Variations quasimodiennes.” Les Cahiers naturalistes 78 (2004): 265-281.
“Hugo à l’aire Saint-Mittre: Zola et la problématique de la propriété littéraire.” The French Review 76.2 (2002): 346-357.
“‘Totem et tabou’ dans La Fortune des Rougon.” Excavatio 14.1-2 (2001): 73-85.
“Les 'Hugoglyphes' des Misérables.” Romanic Review 91.1 (2000): 15-29.
“Le parcours zolien de Jean Echenoz.” Romanic Review 89:3 (1998): 429-444.
“The opening Chapter of La Fortune des Rougon, or the darker side of Zolian writing.” Dalhousie French Studies 44 (1998): 39-53.
“Où le petit Zola tire parti de Hugo le grand et du dilemne qui en résulte,” French Forum 22.2 (1997): 165-180.
“Une lecture 'Hugo-centrique' de La Fortune des Rougon.” Romanic Review 87:2 (1996): 271- 283.
“Hugo's 'égouts' and Le Ventre de Paris.” The French Review 69.3 (1996): 394-408.
“Le roi Cophétua: les adieux de Julien Gracq à l'écriture fictionnelle.” Australian Journal of French Studies 32.1 (1995): 77-92.
“Zazie dans le métro and Neo-French.” Modern Language Studies 22.3 (1992): 4-16.
“Chess and Text in Julien Gracq's Un beau ténébreux.” Symposium 45.2 (1991): 83-96.
“Germinal, ou les aventures de Zola au pays des merveilles.” Les Cahiers Naturalistes 65 (1991): 79-97.
“L'Onomastique comme matrice fictionnelle dans Un Balcon en forêt de Julien Gracq.” Romanic Review 81.1 (1990): 119-129.
“Un Balcon en forêt de Julien Gracq: la mise en scène d'une énonciation.” French Forum 14.2 (1989): 199-208.
Teaching
Contemporary French fiction
Twentieth-Century French Short Fiction
French Short Stories in Context
Contemporary French films
Nineteenth-Century French Fiction
Paris in French and Francophone Fiction
Introduction to Literary Analysis
Advanced written French
Advanced oral French
Intermediate French I and II
Beginning French 1 and II