Brian Nelson – Curriculum Vitae

Professor Emeritus, French Studies and Translation Studies

School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics

Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia

T:+61 3 94174550

Education

  • D.Phil. Oxford (New College), 1979
  • M.A. Cambridge (Downing College), 1972
  • B.A. Cambridge (Downing College), 1968: First Class Honours in Modern Languages

Appointments

  • Professor of French Studies, Monash University, Melbourne (1986–2008)

Founding Head, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics(2001–05); Head, Department of Romance Languages (1986–98); Founding Director, Centre for European Studies (1987–92, 1995–2000)

  • Senior Lecturer in French, Aberystwyth University, Wales(1984–86);

Lecturer (1973–84)

  • Lecteur d’anglais, École Normale Supérieure, rue d’Ulm, University of Paris

(1970–71)

  • Assistant d’anglais, Lycée Frédéric Mistral, Avignon (1968–69)

Awards and honours

  • New South Wales Premier’s Prize for Literary Translation and PEN Medallion (2015)
  • Runner-up, International Federation of Translators “Aurora Borealis” Prize for Outstanding Translation of Fiction (2011)
  • Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities (2011)
  • Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (2003)
  • Jebb Studentship, University of Cambridge (1969–71)
  • College Prize and title of Scholar – Downing College, Cambridge (1968)

Fellowships and residencies

  • Brown Foundation Fellow, Dora Maar House, Ménerbes, France (June 2014)
  • Fellow, Salzburg Global Seminar: “Traduttore Traditore? Recognizing and Promoting the Critical Role of Translation in a Global Culture” (co-convenor with Michael Henry Heim of the working group on The Role of the Academy in Promoting Translation) (Feb 2009)
  • Residential Fellow, Institut d’Études Avancées (Maison Suger), Paris

(Aug-Sep 2009); Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France (Sep–Dec 2006)

  • Visiting Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University, Bloomington, US (Oct 1993)
  • Visiting Fellow, New College, Oxford (Hilary Term 1990)
  • Writer in Residence, Château de Lavigny (Fondation Ledig-Rowohlt), Switzerland (May–June 2016)
  • Translator in Residence, Collège International des Traducteurs Littéraires, Arles (May 2017, Oct 2015, Aug-Sep 2012, Sep-Oct 2009, June 2006, April 2004, Aug 2001, June–July 1998, July 1997); Casa delle Traduzioni, Rome (June 2013); Collège Européen des Traducteurs Littéraires de Seneffe, Belgium (Aug 2010); British Centre for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia (July 2001)

Professional service

  • Founding President, Australian Society for French Studies (1994–96).
  • Editor, Australian Journal of French Studies (2002–present)

This journal has enjoyed a high international reputation since its foundation in 1963. I have taken various initiatives to raise its profile further, giving more emphasis to numbers focused on specific themes, ensuring a higher level of international involvement, developing a closer relationship with the Australian Society for French Studies (through collaborative preparation of special numbers and the launch in 2015 of the AJFS/ASFS Postgraduate Prize), and negotiating the journal’s publicationfrom 2012 by Liverpool University Press.

  • President, Australian Association for Literary Translation (AALITRA) (2007–15): AALITRA promotes an interest in all aspects of literary translation. It organizes seminars, workshops, and symposia, and publishes an electronic newsletter. In 2009 I instigated the creation of a peer-reviewed online journal, The AALITRA Review( I was editor 2009–13. In 2014 we launched the AALITRA Translation Prize, which offers prizes biennially for translations of a selected prose text and a selected poem. The source language changes on a rotating basis.
  • I played the leading role in the establishment in 2015 of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH) Medal for Excellence in Translation (obtaining funding, developingguidelines,chairing Panel of Experts, etc.).
General Editor, Monash Romance Studies (1995–2008). 21 volumes were published. From 2001 the series was published under the imprint of the University of Delaware Press and distributed worldwide by Associated University Presses.
  • General Editor, Berg European Studies Series (New York/Oxford)(1989–94).
  • Founding Co-editor (1982–86)of the journal Romance Studies.
  • Editorial Board, XIX (online journal of the British Society of Dix-Neuviémistes)

(2002–present)

  • Australian Correspondent, Les Cahiers naturalistes and Modern & Contemporary France(1993–present)
  • Advisory Board, Société Française de Traductologie (2015–present )
  • Advisory Board, Australian Book Review (2004–07)
  • Consultant editor, Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture, ed. Alex Hughes and Keith Reader (London: Routledge, 1998)

Publications

Work in progress

  • Zola: A Very Short Introduction. Under commission by Oxford University Press.
  • Émile Zola. Under commission by Reaktion Books, London.
  • A new translation of L’Assommoir by Émile Zola. Under commission by Oxford University Press.
  • Introduction and Notes to Dr Pascal (Le Docteur Pascal) by Émile Zola.Translation by Julie Rose. Under commission by Oxford UniversityPress.
  • Introduction and Notes to Nana by Émile Zola. Translation by Helen Constantine. Under commission by Oxford University Press.

Books: single-authored

  • The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature.Cambridge University Press, 2015.296pp.

“To say that this book is readable would be a serious understatement . . . inspired and often inspiring” – T. Chapman Wing, H-France Review

“an important contribution… [Nelson’s] scholarshipis all the more impressive for being deftly deployed” – C. Nettelbeck, Australian Book Review

  • Zola and the Bourgeoisie. London: Macmillan, 1983.230pp.

“beautifully places the novelist and his novels” – Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience, II, 457

“a major contribution to Zola scholarship” – Philip Walker, French Review

  • Émile Zola: A Selective Analytical Bibliography. London: Grant & Cutler, 1982.150pp

“Indispensable reference work” – David Baguley, Critical Essays on Emile Zola

Books: translations with introduction and notes (all for Oxford University Press, World’s Classics series)

  • Émile Zola, His Excellency Eugène Rougon (Son Excellence Eugène Rougon). 2018. xxxi + 343pp.
  • Marcel Proust, Swann in Love (Un amour de Swann). Introduction and Notes by Adam Watt. 2017. xxxviii + 194pp.
  • Émile Zola,Earth (La Terre).2016.(Translation with Julie Rose.) xxvii + 433pp.
  • Émile Zola, The Fortune of the Rougons (La Fortune des Rougon).2012.xxx + 301pp.

“If there has been an occasional edition of the novel issued in English in recent times, there has been none to compare with [this] impeccable translation” – David Baguley, Bulletin of the Émile Zola Society.

  • Émile Zola, The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris).2007.xxxiii + 287pp.
  • Émile Zola, The Kill (La Curée).2004.xxxix + 275pp.

“Nelson’s introduction [has] a depth of analysis rarely found in introductions of this kind... The translation itself reads as an engaging and thoughtful close rereading of the original”(Modern Language Review)

  • Émile Zola, Pot Luck (Pot-Bouille).1999.xxiv + 381pp.
  • Émile Zola, The Ladies’ Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames).1995.xxxi + 438pp.BBC tie-in edition Oct. 2012.Life sales: 92,137. Used as the basis of two BBC TV series, The Paradise (2012–13); dramatized as the “Classic Serial”, BBC Radio 4, 1997.

Books: edited

  • The Cambridge Companion to Émile Zola. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 214pp.
  • Forms of Commitment: Intellectuals in Contemporary France.Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies, 1995. 192pp.
  • Naturalism in the European Novel: New Critical Perspectives. London: Bloomsbury (formerly New York/Oxford: Berg), 1992. 280pp. (Introduction, 1-9.)

Books: co-edited

  • Perspectives on Literature and Translation: Creation, Circulation, Reception.Co-ed. with Brigid Maher.New York and London: Routledge (Routledge Advances in Translation Studies), 2013.224pp. Paperback release 2016. (Introduction with Brigid Maher,pp. 1–10.)

“[T]his volume shows the value of literary translation as a writerly and scholarly act, and provides an important intervention into the debate on the place of translation and world literature within the field of comparative literature.” (The Translator)

  • After Blanchot: Literature, Philosophy, Criticism.Co-ed. with Leslie Hill and Dimitris Vardoulakis. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005.286pp.
  • Practising Theory: Pierre Bourdieu and the Field of Cultural Production.Co-ed. with Jeff Browitt.Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004.131pp.
  • Telling Performances: Readings of Gender, Narrative and Performance.Co-ed. with Anne Freadman and Philip Anderson. Newark: University of DelawarePress, 2001.265pp.
  • Women Seeking Expression: France 1789–1914.Co-ed. with Rosemary Lloyd.Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies, 2000.275pp.
  • The People’s Voice: Essays on European Romanticism.Co-ed. with Andrea Ciccarelli and John C. Isbell.Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies, 1999.150pp.
  • The Idea of Europe.Co-ed. with David Roberts and Walter Veit.London: Bloomsbury (formerly New York/Oxford: Berg), 1992. 180pp.(Intro with David Roberts,i-xi.)
  • The European Community in the 1990s.Co-ed. with David Roberts and Walter Veit.London: Bloomsbury (formerly New York/Oxford: Berg), 1992.220pp.

(Introduction with David Roberts,viii-xiii.)

Critical editions

  • Émile Zola: “Thérèse Raquin”. London: Bloomsbury (formerly Bristol Classical Press), 1993. xxxviii +150pp.
  • Jean Giono: “Colline”. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986. xxxii + 96pp.
Journal issues guest co-edited
  • “Translation and/as Culture.”Journal of Intercultural Studies,28.4 (2007).
  • “Tongues.”Meanjin 64.4 (2005).(Special issue on Translation, with contributions by John Coetzee, Brian Castro, et al.)
  • “Zola: Modern Perspectives.”Australian Journal of French Studies,38.3 (2001).
  • “Imagining the City.”Journal of Urban History,27.6 (2001).
  • “Popular Culture in Postwar France.” Australian Journal of French Studies, 35.1 (1998).
  • “Intellectuals in Europe.” Meanjin,52.1 (1993).
  • “Travellers’ Tales: Literary Journeys Real and Imaginary.”Romance Studies, 21

(1992–93).

Scholarly articles and book chapters(# commissioned; *invited)

  • # “Émile Zola: The Pursuit of ‘Truth’.”The Wiley Blackwell Companion to World Literature. Ed. Ken Seigneurie et al., vol. IV. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, 2018.
  • # Entry (2,000 words) on “Zola: The Kill”.Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. Ed. Jeremy Tambling. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017. (Electronic resource.)
  • # Introduction to A Love Story (Une page d’amour) by Émile Zola, trans. Helen Constantine. Oxford University Press, 2017. vii–xxiii.
  • #“The Remaking of Paris: Zola and Haussmann.”The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Paris. Ed. Anna-Louise Milne. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

103–19.

  • * “Realism: Mirage or Model?”Romance Studies 30.3–4 (2012):149–52.
  • #“Zola: Naturalism.”The Cambridge Companion to European Novelists. Ed. Michael Bell. Cambridge University Press, 2012:294–309.
  • “Literature and Globalization: Some Thoughts on Translation and the Transnational.”The AALITRA Review 3 (May 2011):53–63. (With David Roberts.) A shortened and modified version of this article appeared as “On World Literature” in In Other Words,46 (Winter 2015): 80–85.
  • * “Alfred Jarry: the Art of the Grotesque.”Groteske Moderne – Moderne Groteske: Festschrift für Philip Thomson / Festschrift for Philip Thomson. Ed. Franz-Josef Deiters, Axel Fliethmann and Christiane Weller. St. Ingbert: Röhrig Universitätsverlag, 2011. 205–12.
  • “Translation Lost and Found.”Australian Journal of French Studies 47.1 (2010): 3–7.
  • “Translating Cultures, Cultures of Translation.”Journal of Intercultural Studies 28.4 (2007):361–65.
  • * “Dandies, Dandyism, and the Uses of Style.”Moderne begreifen (Understanding Modernity). Ed. Christine Magerski, Christiane Weller and Robert Savage. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2007).135–43.
  • “Zola and the Nineteenth Century.”The Cambridge Companion to Emile Zola. Ed. Brian Nelson. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 1–18.
  • “Blood on the Tracks: Zola’s La Bête humaine.”Australian Journal of French Studies43.1 (2006): 13–18.
  • “The Politics of Style: Zola’s L’Assommoir.”Meanjin64.4 (2005): 90–98.
  • “Émile Zola.”Australian Book Review 273 (Aug 2005): 55–60.
  • “Driven to Excess: Nana and Consumerism.”Australian Journal of French Studies42.2 (2005): 185–91.
  • “Chasing Rimbauds.”Australian Journal of French Studies39.2 (2002): 314–24.
  • “Nana: Uses of the Female Body.”Australian Journal of French Studies38.3 (2001):407–29.
  • * “Foreword.”New Perspectives on the Fin de Siècle in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France. Ed. Kay Chadwick and Timothy Unwin. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. ix–xi.
  • “Baudelaire and Flowers of Evil.”Charles Baudelaire,Flowers of Evil.A new translation by Valerie Grünwald. Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies, 1999. 3–9.
  • * “Flaubert and Semanalysis: Rereading L’Éducation sentimentale.”Narrative Voices in Modern French Fiction. Ed. Michael Cardy, George Evans and Gabriel Jacobs. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1997. 101–12.
  • “Désir et consommation dans Au Bonheur des Dames.”Les Cahiers naturalistes70 (1996): 19–34.
  • * “L’extrême Europe se trouve aux antipodes: l'Australie.”L'Esprit de l’Europe, 3 vols. Ed. Antoine Compagnon and Jacques Seebacher. (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), vol. 1 (Dates et Lieux). 330–35.
  • “Zola and the Counter Revolution: Au Bonheur des Dames.” Australian Journal of French Studies30.2 (1993): 233–40.
  • * “Zola’s Ideology: the Road to Utopia.”Critical Essays on Emile Zola Ed. David Baguley. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1986. 161–72.
  • “Realism: Model or Mirage?”Romance Studies1 (Winter 1982): 1-17.Repr. inRomance Studies 30:3-4 (2012) (Special Issue: Realism Revisited): 153–63.
  • “Art and Nothingness: Sartre on Flaubert.”Modern & Contemporary France 11

(Autumn 1982): 23–26.

  • “Zola and the Ideology of Messianism.”Orbis Litterarum37 (1982): 70–82.
  • “Pot-Bouille, étude sociale et roman comique.”Les Cahiers naturalistes55 (1981): 74–92.
  • “Lukács, Zola, and the Aesthetics of Realism.”Studi Francesi 71 (1980):251–55.
  • “Energy and Order in Zola's L’Argent.”Australian Journal of French Studies17.3 (1980): 275–300.
  • “Zola’s Metaphoric Language: A Paragraph from La Curée.”Modern Languages59 (June 1978): 61–64.
  • “Zola and the Bourgeoisie: A Reading of Pot-Bouille.”Nottingham French Studies

17 (May 1978): 58–70.

  • “Speculation and Dissipation: A Reading of Zola’s La Curée.”Essays in French Literature14 (1977):1–33.
  • “Black Comedy: Notes on Zola’s Pot-Bouille.”Romance Notes17 (Winter 1976): 156–61.
  • “Zola and the Ambiguities of Passion: Une page d'amour.”Essays in French Literature10 (1973): 1–22.
Papers in refereed conference proceedings
  • “Traduire Zola: une question de voix.”Traduire Zola. Actes du colloque de Rome. Ed. Bruna Donatelli et Sophie Guermes. 2018. 45–56.
  • “Translation and World Literature.” “Bridging Cultures”: Proceedings of the XIX World Congress of the International Federation of Translators (San Francisco, Aug 1–4, 2011). 111–18. (A modifiedversion of “Literature and Globalization”: see Scholarly articles.)
  • “Jean Giono: idéologie etutopie.”Visages de la Provence: Zola, Cézanne, Giono… (actes du colloque international d’Aix-en-Provence, 19–21 octobre 2007).Ed. Valerie Minogue and Patrick Pollard.London: The Émile Zola Society, 2008. 179–86.
  • “Lukács and Zola: Some Problems of Marxist Aesthetics.”Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association (Innsbruck, 1979), vol. 4: Evolution of the Novel. Ed. Zoran Konstantinovic, Manfred Naumann and Hans Robert Jauss.Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Gesellschaft zur Pflege der Geisteswissenschaften, 1982. 305–09.

Other publications (not including reviews in academic journals)

  • “Swann’s Way: Translation as literary criticism.”In Other Words 49 (2017): 67–69.
  • “Desire and sexuality in the work of Émile Zola.” OUP blog. Posted May 12, 2016.
  • “Shock of the new.”Australian Book Review (Jan–Feb 2016)45. (Review of Charles Baudelaire: Selected Poems from “Les Fleurs du Mal”, translated by Jan Owen, Arc Publications, 2015.)
  • “Found in Translation: Correspondence.”Quarterly Essay 53 (2014): 98–100.
  • “Editorial: AJFS at 50.” Australian Journal of French Studies 50.3 (2013):

303–04.

  • “Émile Zola and the integrity of representation.” OUPblog.PostedSeptember 29, 2013.
  • “Perspectives on Translation.”Humanities Australia: the journal of the Australian Academy of the Humanities 4 (2013): 35–43.(With Rita Wilson.)
  • “Translating Zola.”The Warwick Review 6.4 (Dec 2012): 45–50.
  • “The divine stenographer: Victor Hugo and the glory of narrative.”Australian Book Review 338 (July 2011): 60–61.
  • “The great impersonators.”Australian Literary Review 5.10 (Nov 2010): 7, 22.Also in The AALITRA Review 2 (Nov 2010): 48-53.(Review article on Edith Grossman, Why Translation Matters; Umberto Eco, Experiences in Translation; Antoine Berman, Toward a Translation Criticism: John Donne.)
  • “Invisible labour.”Australian Literary Review 4.4 (May 2009): 22–23.(Review article on André Gorz, Story of D; Catherine Rey, Stepping Out; Victor Hugo, Les Misérables – all translated by Julie Rose.)
  • A comprehensive bibliography on Maupassant (books, articles, theses, films, etc. published or produced in Australia) for inclusion in Bibliographie des Écrivains Français: Guy de Maupassant.2 vols.Ed. Yvan Leclerc. Les Editions Memini, Turnhout (Belgium): Brepols, 2009.
  • “Literature of the street.”Australian Book Review (Sep 2008): 53–54.(Review of Rosemary Lloyd, Charles Baudelaire, Reaktion Press, 2008.)
  • “Zola lost and found in translators’ art.”The Age, Melbourne (Sep 15, 2007), 20 (A2).
  • “Jeanne genie.”Australian Literary Review 3.3 (April 2008): 20.(Review article on Evelyne Bloch-Dano, Madame Proust, University of Chicago Press, 2007.)
  • “Defending Dreyfus.”The Age, Melbourne (April 8, 2006): 14–15 (A2).
  • “Translating David Malouf.”In Other Words 17 (Summer 2001): 43–50.
  • “Against Nature: Fashion, Dandyism, Decadence.”Carnet austral 10 (March 1999): 4–6.
  • “Teaching Disciplinary Knowledge in First-Year Modern Language Courses.”Carnet austral 4 (March 1996): 4–8.

PhD supervision

I have supervised or co-supervised 14 PhD theses to successful completion.