profiles

Dr. David Posner

Degrees

• Ph. D., Comparative Literature, Princeton.
• AB, Comparative Literature, Stanford.

Research Interests

• European literatures (French, Italian, German, English) of the Renaissance and 17th century, in particular prose narrative, epic, theater, and the essay
• The reception of Classical antiquity in the Renaissance
• Modern and contemporary Francophone literatures, especially those of sub-Saharan Africa
• Philosophy and literature
• Literature and opera

Professional & Community Affiliations

• Modern Language Association
• Midwest Modern Language Association
• American Comparative Literature Association
• Renaissance Society of America
• Sixteenth Century Studies Conference
• American Association for Italian Studies
• Société des Amis de Montaigne
• African Literature Association

Courses Taught

• French 309, Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean
• French 316, Survey of XVIc. Literature
• French 317, Survey of XVIIc. Literature
• French 318, Survey of XVIIIc. Literature
• Honors 101/02, Developments in the History of Western Thought
• Honors 216, Encountering Europe
• LITR 245, Masterpieces of Chinese Fiction: The Four Great Classical Novels
• LITR 280, Voyages to the Underworld
• LITR 280, Theater
• LITR 280, Renaissance Road Trips
• LITR/GIST/BWS 283, Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean
• LITR 284, African Film
• LITR 285, Literature and Opera
• LITR 290, The Renaissance
• FREN/ITAL/GERM/SPAN 308, Literary Theory Ancient and Modern

Selected Publications

• "Montaigne, Julian, and 'Others': The Quest for Peaceful Coexistence in Public Space", in Democracy, Culture, Catholicism. Voices from Four Continents, 
   eds. Michael J. Schuck and John Crowley-Buck (New York: Fordham UP, 2016): 71-86.
• “What do Philosophers Want? Love and Loss in the Essais of Montaigne”, in Teoria 29:2 (2009): 95-107.
• “Mortality, Melancholy, and the Limits of Knowledge in the Quart Livre”, in Esprit généreux, esprit pantagruélicque (Genève: Droz, 2008): 197-208.
• “Rhetoric, Redemption, and Fraud: What We Do When We End Books”, in the MLA’s Profession 2005: 179-82.
• “Religious Economies in The Merchant of Venice”, in Annals of Scholarship16:1-3 (2004): 139-53.
• “French Literature”, “Montaigne”, “Rabelais”, and “Racine”, articles for Europe 1450-1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003).
• The Performance of Nobility in Early Modern European Literature.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1999.