Raji Vallury
Assistant Professor of French

Contact Information
Ortega Hall 319C
University of New Mexico
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Albuquerque, NM 87131-1146
Phone: (505) 277-1179
Fax: (505) 277-3599
Email: rvallury@unm.edu

Research Areas

19th and 20th century French and Francophone Literature

Biographical Paragraph

Prior to her appointment as Assistant Professor of French at the University of New Mexico in Fall 2006, Raji Vallury taught French language, literature and culture at Kenyon and Oberlin. She specializes in 19 th century French Literature, and her teaching and research interests include 19 th and 20 th century French Literature, literary theory, and gender and postcolonial studies. She has a book forthcoming with the University of Toronto Press entitled ‘Surfacing’ the Politics of Desire: Literature, Feminism and Myth. Situated at the intersection of philosophy, politics and literature, her research questions some dominant feminist approaches to the literary representation of gender by studying four male-authored narratives of nineteenth century French literature. Taking as its starting point a confrontation in which literature exceeds the analytical paradigms of feminist thought, her book reevaluates the sexual politics practiced by male authors of the nineteenth century, and works through the consequences that must then be drawn for a feminist politics and aesthetics. The common thread linking Dr. Vallury’s varied research interests is the specific question of the relationship between literature and politics, or how literature ‘does’ politics. For her next research project, Dr. Vallury plans to undertake a book-length study on metaphors of nation in the Algerian novel.

Educational History

Ph.D., French Literature, University of Pittsburgh, awarded August 2001. Title of dissertation: "The Blind Spot in a Dream of Dissymmetry". Dissertation Director: Professor Yves Citton.

M.A., French Literature, University of Pittsburgh, April 1993.

Certificat de Maîtrise, Littérature française générale et comparée, Université de Nantes, France, June 1992.

B.A., French Literature, Ramnarain Ruia College,University of Bombay, India, June 1988.

B.A., Psychology, Sophia College,University of Bombay, June 1987.

Publications

Book forthcoming in December 2008 with the University of Toronto Press: “‘Surfacing’ the Politics of Desire: Literature, Feminism and Myth.”

Article forthcoming in Fall 08 with Duke University Press: “The Dreams of the Just: Allegorizing the Community of Brotherhood in Tahar Djaout’s Les Vigiles” in Jacques Rancière: History, Aesthetics, Politics.

Article forthcoming with the journal Novel: “Walking the Tightrope between Memory and History: Metaphor in Tahar Djaout’s L’invention du désert “

“Pierre et Jean or The Erring of Oedipus.” Dalhousie French Studies, Volume 71, Summer 2005.

Courses Taught

Inscribing Democracy in the Republic of Letters: The People, Art and the Artistic Exception in 19th century France
Nation and Metropolis: Metaphors of Invention and Dissension
Les femmes écrivains du 19 e siècle jusqu’au présent
Le plaisir de lire: Le roman français contemporain
French Literature from the Middle Ages to the Revolution
French Literature from the Revolution up to the 20th Century
The Representation of History in the 19th Century French Novel
The Algerian Novel
The Moroccan Novel
The 20th Century French War Novel
French Culture, Politics and Society through Film

Professional Recognition and/or Affiliations

Mellon Fellow , University of Pittsburgh, September 2000 to August 2001 and September 1998 to August 1999.

Recent Administrative Positions (include grad student Committees on Studies)

Undergraduate Advisor of French