Dr E.M.J. Nye
Edward M.J. Nye, M.A., D.Phil. (B.A. Leic., M.A. Leeds)
University Lecturer (CUF) in French, Fellow of Lincoln College
Address: Lincoln College, Turl Street, Oxford, OX1 3DR
Research
Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Bohemian immigrant who arrived in early nineteenth-century Paris to play a small part in his father's street theatre, but who became the star attraction, the quintessential white-faced Pierrot who greatly inspired contemporary writers such as Théophile Gautier and Baudelaire. He gave a new direction to the art of mime just as the most famous genre of mime, the Commedia dell'arte, was waning. He became (and still is) a model for mime theatre either to imitate or reject. The most famous image of him is 'Baptiste' in the 1945 film by Carné and Prévert, Les Enfants du paradis, played by Jean-Louis Barraultf, himself one of the great twentieth-century actor-mimes. The problem with this image, however, is that it contributes to the huge weight of myth attached to Deburau, initiated by his nineteenth-century admirers such as Gautier and Baudealire. I am writing an intellectual biography of Deburau which pays less attention to the myth, and more to the reception of his performances in contemporary writing in order to bring out the aesthetic and general performance principles of his work.
Teaching
French language and literature, especially the seventeenth and eighteenth century
Publications
Books:
Literary and Linguistic Theories in the French Eighteenth-century: from nuances to impertinence (O.U.P., 2000).
Mime, Music, and Drama on the Eighteenth-Century Stage (C.U.P., 2011)
Edited books:
Sur quel pied danser? Danse et Littérature (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2005)
A bicyclette (Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2000)
Book Chapters:
'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 (Rodopi, 2009), 1-9
'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
'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, Edward Nye (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 littérature, Edward Nye (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2005), 107-135
'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
Articles:
'Annual proceedings of the Voltaire Foundation Postgraduate Conference', SVEC, (since 1997),
'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
'Contemporary reactions to Jean-Georges Noverre's ballets d'action', SVEC, (2007:06), 31-45
With Fanny Thépot, 'Dramaturgie et musique dans le ballet-pantomime Médée et Jason de Noverre et Rodolphe', Revue de l'Histoire du Théâtre, 4 (2007), 305-323
'Eighteenth-century views of Racinian "harmonie poétique"', SVEC, (2005:08), 107-115
'De la similitude du ballet-pantomime et de l’opéra à travers trois dialogues muets', SVEC, (2005:06), 207-222
'Modernity in Desfontaines's translation of Joseph Andrews', SVEC, (2000:04), 279-284
'Bilboquet, calembours, and modernity', SVEC, 08 (2000), 179-186
'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