Edward M.J. Nye, M.A., D.Phil.
Associate Professor of French, Fellow of Lincoln College
In the past, I have mainly focused on aesthetic theories of literature, the aesthetics of stage dance, and the theatrical, literary and cultural impact of mime in the nineteenth century. My current research lies in Deaf Studies, the change of attitude to the deaf in the eighteenth century which constitutes one of the greatest social, cultural and philosophical legacies of the Enlightenment, and the subsequent significance of Deaf Culture in literature and the arts.
I welcome applications for postgraduate study in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly (but not exclusively) relating to authors such as Rousseau, Diderot and L-S. Mercier, playwrights, theatre and dance, issues of language and style, of artistic aesthetics, as well as topics in the history of ideas, matters concerning the nature of the Enlightenment and Romantic movements, and Deaf Studies.
On 18c and 19c Dance and Mime
Deburau: Pierrot, Mime and Culture (Routledge 2022)
Mime, Music and Drama on the Eighteenth-century Stage: the Ballet d'Action (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Sur Quel Pied Danser? Danse et littérature (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2005).
‘Portraits of Deburau in Janin’s Deburau, l’histoire du théâtre à quatre sous’, L’Esprit Créateur, 59.1 (2019), pp. 66-81
‘La Mise en scène au Théâtre des Funambules : spectaculaire, mime et poésie’, Romantisme, 188 (2020), pp. 60-59
‘Pierrot : From laughter to fear’, European Drama and Performance Studies, 2 (2021), pp. 125-142
'The Pantomime repertoire of the Théâtre des Funambules', in Nineteenth-century theatre and film, 43.1 (2016)
‘The Romantic Myth of Jean-Gaspard Deburau’, in Nineteenth-Century French Studies 44.1–2 (Fall–Winter 2015–16), pp. 46-64
‘Chiaroscuro in the Eighteenth-century Ballet d’action’, in Shadows of the Enlightenment: Chiaroscuro in early-modern France and Italy, a study in analogy and metaphorology, eds Marion Lafouge and Mark Darlow (Paris: Presses de l’École des Chartes, 2014)
‘Outrageous dancing and respectable Noverre’, in Jean-Georges Noverre 1727-1810: Lettres sur la Danse, and beyond, eds Jennifer Thorp and Michael Burden (New York: Pendragon, 2014), pp. 87-100
‘Jean-Gaspard Deburau: Romantic Pierrot’, in New Theatre Quarterly, XXX (2014), 107-119
‘L'Esthétique du corps dans le ballet d'action', in Aux limites de l'imitation. L'ut pictura poesis à l'épreuve de la matière aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, ed. Nathalie Kremer (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2009), 203-212
The Eighteenth-century Ballet-pantomime and Modern Mime', New Theatre Quarterly, XXV (2009), 22-43
'Dancing words: eighteenth-century ballet-pantomime wordbooks as paratexts', Word and Image, 24 (4) (2008), 403-412
'Choreography is narrative: the programmes of the eighteenth-century ballet d’action', Dance Research, 26.1 (2008), 42-59
'L’Allégorie dans le ballet d’action: Le témoignage des parodies de Marie Sallé', Revue de l’histoire littéraire de France, 2008 (2), 289-309
'Contemporary reactions to Jean-Georges Noverre's ballets d'action', SVEC, (2007:06), 31-45
'Dramaturgie et musique dans le ballet-pantomime Médée et Jason de Noverre et Rodolphe', co-author Fanny Thépot, Revue de l'histoire du théâtre, 4 (2007), 305-323
'De la similitude du ballet-pantomime et de l’opéra à travers trois dialogues muets', SVEC, (2005:06), 207-222
'Le Petit-maître dansant et le caractère de la danse: les héritiers de La Bruyère au dix-huitième siècle', in Sur Quel Pied Danser? Danse et littérature (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2005), 137-156
'Grace II: Poetry and the choric analogy in eighteenth-century France', in Sur Quel Pied Danser? Danse et literature (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2005), 107-135
On 18c literary aesthetics
Literary and Linguistic Theories in Eighteenth-century France: from Nuances to Impertinence (O.U.P. 2000), x, 250p.
'Rationalist and sensationist aesthetics in eighteenth-century France', in Inspiration and Technique. Ancient and Modern Views on Beauty and Art, John Roe and Michele Stanco (Bern: Peter Lang, 2007), 193-216
'Eighteenth-century views of Racinian "harmonie poétique"', SVEC, (2005:08), 107-115
'Modernity in Desfontaines's translation of Joseph Andrews', SVEC, (2000:04), 279-284
'Bilboquet, calembours, and modernity', SVEC, 08 (2000), 179-186
On the bicycle in literature
'The Literary pursuit in France', in Companion to Cycling (Routledge, 2022)
À Bicyclette, 2nd edition (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2000, 2013), xlvi, 417 pages, illustrated.
'Joie de vivre and the Will to Win in the Literature of Cycling', in Joie de vivre in French Literature and Culture; Essays in honour of Mike Freeman, ed. Susan Harrow, Tim Unwin (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2009), 255-268