Loyola University Chicago

Modern Languages and Literatures

Faculty & Staff Directory

Dr. David Posner

Title/s:  Department Chair
Associate Professor

Specialty Area: French Language & Literature

Office #:  CC217D

Phone: 773.508.2866

Email: dposner@luc.edu

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.