Madeleine Dobie | Columbia University (original) (raw)

Introductions to Special Issues (CSSAAME) by Madeleine Dobie

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 26:2

C o m p a r a t i v e S t u d i e s o f S o u t h A s i a , A f r i c a a n d t h e M i d d l e E... more C o m p a r a t i v e S t u d i e s o f S o u t h A s i a , A f r i c a a n d t h e M i d d l e E a s t V o l . 2 6 , N o . 2 , 2 0 0 6 d o i 1 0 .1 2 1 5 / 1 0 8 9 2 0 1 x -2 0 0 6 -0 0 2 © 2 0 0 6 b y D u k e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s 1 7 8

Papers by Madeleine Dobie

Sophie Doin's La Famille noire suivie de trois Nouvelles blanches et noires (2002).[1] Collective... more Sophie Doin's La Famille noire suivie de trois Nouvelles blanches et noires (2002).[1] Collectively, these publications represent an important contribution to research on the history and literature of race and slavery, the interconnections of the French and Haitian Revolutions, and the emergence of transcontinental francophone culture.

UMI Dissertation Services eBooks, 1996

The Romanic Review, Nov 1, 2004

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and The Middle East, Aug 1, 2003

... Kateb Yacine, who came to prominence with his Francophone novel, Nedjma (1957), later ... Fre... more ... Kateb Yacine, who came to prominence with his Francophone novel, Nedjma (1957), later ... French several Arabic-language poets, and the Moroccan novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun has ... the newspaper Libre Algérie, Barzakh's co-founders, Selma Hellal and Sofiane Hadjadj, discuss ...

Modern Language Review, 2010

The Eighteenth Century, 1997

who has done a great deal to rescue Graffigny from obscurity, has developed this approach by argu... more who has done a great deal to rescue Graffigny from obscurity, has developed this approach by arguing that the text by the woman writer actually provides a clearer mise en scène of contemporary philosophical currents than Montesquieu's Lettres persanes because it attends more closely to the perceptual experience of an individual, gendered body.2 She argues that feminine writing is philosophical because it focuses on the sensory experience often dismissed as "sentimentalism," rather than on the rational abstractions conventionally associated with masculinity.3 To some extent this depiction recalls the insistence of more contemporary écriture féminine on sensory experience sublimated or repressed in speculative philosophy. This account of Graffigny's epistemology represents a seminal contribution to the study of this textindeed it has become something of a critical commonplace to contrast the embodiment of subjective experience in the Lettres d'une Péruvienne to more conventionally rationalistic and abstract Enlightenment strategies for criticizing ethno

WE ARE IN A “CAMUS MOMENT” — BUT WHAT CAN THE GREAT FRENCH-ALGERIAN AUTHOR TEACH US ABOUT THE WORLD TODAY?, 2018

Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century Norwich, 1998

Eighteenth-century fiction, 2001

Harems of the Mind explores Europe's enduring fascination with the East, with a focus on one ... more Harems of the Mind explores Europe's enduring fascination with the East, with a focus on one of the key components of this obsession, the representation of the harem or seraglio. As Ruth Bernard Yeazell explains in her introduction, in the European imaginary, the harem—the quarters reserved for women in many Moslem households—has often been conflated with the seraglio, the palace of the Sultan in Constantinople, with the result that all Moslem men have been presumed to practise polygamy and to live amid a cohort of willing concubines. As this slippage suggests, and as Yeazell demonstrates throughout her book, Europeans' lack of knowledge about the harem has often spurred on the desire to represent it. Harems of the Mind is ambitiously broad. It covers a period that begins with the defeat of the Turks before Vienna in 1683 and ends with the birth of the Turkish republic and the abolition of polygamy in the 1920s. It mainly examines the work of British and French writers and visual artists, but includes a few references to Italy and Germany. As the title suggests, Yeazell approaches these representations as "imaginative projections" (p. 8) or creative exercises. Unlike many critics who have written in recent years on this topic, she does not think that they are primarily expressions of power or imperial ambition. She does, on the other hand, acknowledge that depictions of polygamy and the harem have always been intertwined with European attitudes towards marriage and the relations between the sexes.

Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture, 2006

The American Historical Review, Jun 1, 2015

Modern Language Review, Apr 1, 2010

and literary; the emergence of modern theories of international law; and the poetic functions tha... more and literary; the emergence of modern theories of international law; and the poetic functions that enable one person to bear the authority to act or speak for another. In addition, certain classical episodes return as touchstones from one chapter to another?Homer's Odysseus before the tent of a sulking Achilles, for example; or, especially, Virgil's exiled Trojans seeking hospitality and friendship on Latin shores. Historical episodes, especially scandalous ones (for example the Taverna story), recur as well, providing material for Montaigne's writing of the self, or for the more acerbic social commentary found in the theatre of Corneille and Racine. The most striking observations concern how, in Hampton's words, the collapse of diplomacy' gives rise to the emergence' of new kinds of writing (p. 43), a dynamic the book repeatedly explores. Hampton's patient readings approach canonical texts in anti-canonical ways. By levelling a critical gaze at the traces history imprints on literature (and vice versa), Hampton constructs an alternative, transnational vision of literary history. The clear and direct prose makes unfamiliar texts accessible. There are no prerequisites required to read and enjoy this book; however, even those familiar with the texts discussed will be gripped by the elegance of Hampton's interpretations.

Modern Fiction Studies, 2008

Eighteenth-century fiction, 1999

Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century Norwich, 1996

Eighteenth-century fiction, 1998

Recent studies have addressed the relationship that ties themes and character development to narr... more Recent studies have addressed the relationship that ties themes and character development to narrative form in the novels of Isabelle de Charrière. Notably, her use of the letter form has been tied to textual closure; it is often suggested that texts by eighteenth-century women writers tend to subvert the conventional endings of death or marriage that close off the narrative, prescribing a restrictive set of alternatives for women readers. Although textual closure is a complex notion that can be analysed on different levels, it is clear that many of Charrière' s novels do problematize narrative resolution, either through appending sequels or commentaries, or by alluding to uncertainties in a protagonist's future. I would like to address narrative practice, particularly the suspension 7 Several American critics have voiced reservations about the poetics and politics of Caliste. Julia Douthwaite argues that the continuity between the Lettres and Caliste is problematic: "I prefer to interpret the two narratives as separate entities, emblematic of two modes of female destiny: the first, narrated by female voices, depicting ongoing, unfinished female lives; the second, narrated by a male voice, symbolizing the traditionally closed vision of female destiny." "Female Voices and Critical Strategies: Montesquieu, Mme de Graffigny and Mme de Charrière," French Literature, series 16 (1989), 73. See also Elizabeth MacArthur, "Devious Narratives: Refusal of Closure in Two Eighteenth-Century Novels," Eighteenth-Century Studies 21 (1987), 1-20. 8 The division between male reason and feminine sensibility articulated in Emile is restated and extended to aesthetics in Kant's Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful (1763), where women are associated with the beautiful rather than the sublime, and, in the moral sphere, with intuition and the practical rather than with duty and the general. A similar division between the sexes is marked in the Anthropology from a Practical Point of View (1797). Whereas these works take the empirical as their point of departure, the Critiques present philosophy as a science of

Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 1991

Journal of Contemporary History, Apr 1, 2020

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 26:2

C o m p a r a t i v e S t u d i e s o f S o u t h A s i a , A f r i c a a n d t h e M i d d l e E... more C o m p a r a t i v e S t u d i e s o f S o u t h A s i a , A f r i c a a n d t h e M i d d l e E a s t V o l . 2 6 , N o . 2 , 2 0 0 6 d o i 1 0 .1 2 1 5 / 1 0 8 9 2 0 1 x -2 0 0 6 -0 0 2 © 2 0 0 6 b y D u k e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s 1 7 8

Sophie Doin's La Famille noire suivie de trois Nouvelles blanches et noires (2002).[1] Collective... more Sophie Doin's La Famille noire suivie de trois Nouvelles blanches et noires (2002).[1] Collectively, these publications represent an important contribution to research on the history and literature of race and slavery, the interconnections of the French and Haitian Revolutions, and the emergence of transcontinental francophone culture.

UMI Dissertation Services eBooks, 1996

The Romanic Review, Nov 1, 2004

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and The Middle East, Aug 1, 2003

... Kateb Yacine, who came to prominence with his Francophone novel, Nedjma (1957), later ... Fre... more ... Kateb Yacine, who came to prominence with his Francophone novel, Nedjma (1957), later ... French several Arabic-language poets, and the Moroccan novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun has ... the newspaper Libre Algérie, Barzakh's co-founders, Selma Hellal and Sofiane Hadjadj, discuss ...

Modern Language Review, 2010

The Eighteenth Century, 1997

who has done a great deal to rescue Graffigny from obscurity, has developed this approach by argu... more who has done a great deal to rescue Graffigny from obscurity, has developed this approach by arguing that the text by the woman writer actually provides a clearer mise en scène of contemporary philosophical currents than Montesquieu's Lettres persanes because it attends more closely to the perceptual experience of an individual, gendered body.2 She argues that feminine writing is philosophical because it focuses on the sensory experience often dismissed as "sentimentalism," rather than on the rational abstractions conventionally associated with masculinity.3 To some extent this depiction recalls the insistence of more contemporary écriture féminine on sensory experience sublimated or repressed in speculative philosophy. This account of Graffigny's epistemology represents a seminal contribution to the study of this textindeed it has become something of a critical commonplace to contrast the embodiment of subjective experience in the Lettres d'une Péruvienne to more conventionally rationalistic and abstract Enlightenment strategies for criticizing ethno

WE ARE IN A “CAMUS MOMENT” — BUT WHAT CAN THE GREAT FRENCH-ALGERIAN AUTHOR TEACH US ABOUT THE WORLD TODAY?, 2018

Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century Norwich, 1998

Eighteenth-century fiction, 2001

Harems of the Mind explores Europe's enduring fascination with the East, with a focus on one ... more Harems of the Mind explores Europe's enduring fascination with the East, with a focus on one of the key components of this obsession, the representation of the harem or seraglio. As Ruth Bernard Yeazell explains in her introduction, in the European imaginary, the harem—the quarters reserved for women in many Moslem households—has often been conflated with the seraglio, the palace of the Sultan in Constantinople, with the result that all Moslem men have been presumed to practise polygamy and to live amid a cohort of willing concubines. As this slippage suggests, and as Yeazell demonstrates throughout her book, Europeans' lack of knowledge about the harem has often spurred on the desire to represent it. Harems of the Mind is ambitiously broad. It covers a period that begins with the defeat of the Turks before Vienna in 1683 and ends with the birth of the Turkish republic and the abolition of polygamy in the 1920s. It mainly examines the work of British and French writers and visual artists, but includes a few references to Italy and Germany. As the title suggests, Yeazell approaches these representations as "imaginative projections" (p. 8) or creative exercises. Unlike many critics who have written in recent years on this topic, she does not think that they are primarily expressions of power or imperial ambition. She does, on the other hand, acknowledge that depictions of polygamy and the harem have always been intertwined with European attitudes towards marriage and the relations between the sexes.

Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture, 2006

The American Historical Review, Jun 1, 2015

Modern Language Review, Apr 1, 2010

and literary; the emergence of modern theories of international law; and the poetic functions tha... more and literary; the emergence of modern theories of international law; and the poetic functions that enable one person to bear the authority to act or speak for another. In addition, certain classical episodes return as touchstones from one chapter to another?Homer's Odysseus before the tent of a sulking Achilles, for example; or, especially, Virgil's exiled Trojans seeking hospitality and friendship on Latin shores. Historical episodes, especially scandalous ones (for example the Taverna story), recur as well, providing material for Montaigne's writing of the self, or for the more acerbic social commentary found in the theatre of Corneille and Racine. The most striking observations concern how, in Hampton's words, the collapse of diplomacy' gives rise to the emergence' of new kinds of writing (p. 43), a dynamic the book repeatedly explores. Hampton's patient readings approach canonical texts in anti-canonical ways. By levelling a critical gaze at the traces history imprints on literature (and vice versa), Hampton constructs an alternative, transnational vision of literary history. The clear and direct prose makes unfamiliar texts accessible. There are no prerequisites required to read and enjoy this book; however, even those familiar with the texts discussed will be gripped by the elegance of Hampton's interpretations.

Modern Fiction Studies, 2008

Eighteenth-century fiction, 1999

Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century Norwich, 1996

Eighteenth-century fiction, 1998

Recent studies have addressed the relationship that ties themes and character development to narr... more Recent studies have addressed the relationship that ties themes and character development to narrative form in the novels of Isabelle de Charrière. Notably, her use of the letter form has been tied to textual closure; it is often suggested that texts by eighteenth-century women writers tend to subvert the conventional endings of death or marriage that close off the narrative, prescribing a restrictive set of alternatives for women readers. Although textual closure is a complex notion that can be analysed on different levels, it is clear that many of Charrière' s novels do problematize narrative resolution, either through appending sequels or commentaries, or by alluding to uncertainties in a protagonist's future. I would like to address narrative practice, particularly the suspension 7 Several American critics have voiced reservations about the poetics and politics of Caliste. Julia Douthwaite argues that the continuity between the Lettres and Caliste is problematic: "I prefer to interpret the two narratives as separate entities, emblematic of two modes of female destiny: the first, narrated by female voices, depicting ongoing, unfinished female lives; the second, narrated by a male voice, symbolizing the traditionally closed vision of female destiny." "Female Voices and Critical Strategies: Montesquieu, Mme de Graffigny and Mme de Charrière," French Literature, series 16 (1989), 73. See also Elizabeth MacArthur, "Devious Narratives: Refusal of Closure in Two Eighteenth-Century Novels," Eighteenth-Century Studies 21 (1987), 1-20. 8 The division between male reason and feminine sensibility articulated in Emile is restated and extended to aesthetics in Kant's Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful (1763), where women are associated with the beautiful rather than the sublime, and, in the moral sphere, with intuition and the practical rather than with duty and the general. A similar division between the sexes is marked in the Anthropology from a Practical Point of View (1797). Whereas these works take the empirical as their point of departure, the Critiques present philosophy as a science of

Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 1991

Journal of Contemporary History, Apr 1, 2020

A Companion to World Literature, Dec 19, 2019

Encounters between Europeans and indigenous Americans have generated a large and diverse body of ... more Encounters between Europeans and indigenous Americans have generated a large and diverse body of cultural representations. From the sixteenth century to the twentieth and across a range of genres and languages, they inspired reflections on the scope of the human, the relationship between nature and civilization, and the destructive impact of colonization on indigenous cultural practices. This chapter draws out a single strand of this discursive web: the European depiction of Amerindians, not as subjects of cultural colonization, but as producers of culture and specifically of literature. This is far from being the most widely examined trope of the literature of colonial encounter. It doesn't fit neatly within the "theme" of the noble savage-the depiction of indigenous Americans' innocence, proximity to nature, and suffering at the hands of European colonists-and it departs from an overall emphasis on the colonial destruction of indigenous culture and its replacement by European languages, media, and forms. It nonetheless exists as a connecting thread that links early responses to the discovery of the Americas to much later ethnographic studies. I propose below that European and later American descriptions of Amerindian narrative, poetry and song can be approached as a practice of "world literature" avant la lettre in the sense that they expand the geographical horizons of the literary and acknowledge the existence of other cultural traditions. European representations of indigenous cultures are rarely examined in the same critical framework as world literature, which has predominantly been conceptualized as the circulation of written texts-the epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and the Chinese novels that inspired Goethe to intone that "the era of world literature is at hand and everyone A Companion to World Literature. Edited by Ken Seigneurie.

A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery, 2025

This piece serves as an introduction to the first volume of A Comparative Literary History of Mod... more This piece serves as an introduction to the first volume of A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery: the Atlantic World and Beyond: "Slavery, Literature and the Emotions." My introduction frames the chapters that follow by asking a broad set of questions about how the conceptualization and naming of emotional experience has changed over time, about slavery as a site of both obvious and less obvious, minor-key emotions, and about how emotional experience is captured in an array of literary forms.

A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery: Vol. 1, 2025

This chapter explores how race crystallized as a mode of human identity in tandem with the gradua... more This chapter explores how race crystallized as a mode of human identity in tandem with the gradual elimination of slavery in the Atlantic World. Drawing on affect theory, it takes as its case study Marie, ou l'esclavage (1835), a fascinating novel by Aléxis de Tocqueville's traveling companion Gustave de Beaumont that straddles the United States and France.