Previous research

In my dissertation on Maupassant's short stories I adopted an aesthetic and narrative perspective (instead of the usual thematic / psychoanalytic perspective), giving an overall picture of both "realistic" and “fantastic” stories in order to describe them as variations of a general story structure, developed by Maupassant. I could then propose that Maupassant eventually seeks to develop longer story forms after having explored the possibilities of the short story for a realistic author. After my thesis I have studied several prominent 18th century writers, particularly the poetics of Alphonse Daudet.

On a methodological / theoretical level, my recent research has focused on the literary “motivation”, a concept created by the Russian formalists. I suggest that the motivation must be distinguished from questions about probability or plausibility. This methodological displacement of the notion of “motivation” has permitted me to publish a number of studies on already thoroughly examined writers (Zola, Maupassant, George Sand, Stendhal, Flaubert).

Current research

In my current research I continue to study primarily 18th century literature, and also intend to finish a monograph where I will include my studies on the subject of literary motivation.

Categories

Literary theory, narrative theory