Dr Alexandre Burin, PhD (Durham)

Profile

I am a graduate of the University of Paris X Nanterre-La Défense, where I completed my BA and MA in English Language, Literature, and Civilisation, with Francophone Literature. I did my doctoral studies at Durham University, funded by the AHRC (Northern Bridge DTP, 2020). My thesis explores new poetic, cultural, and media practices that challenged gender assumptions in the Belle Époque (1871-1914), creating a pre-Butlerian reading of gender trouble, with a focus on the life and works of scandalous writer-journalist Jean Lorrain (1855-1906). My new project is about Music, Language, and Society. I want to show how a music-mediated experience in FFL can broaden the students’ perspectives on the Francophone imaginary, as well as developing their language skills and interpersonal and collaborative competences in a global society. My intention is to develop further creative teaching and research initiatives across disciplines, using music.

Before joining Queen Mary in 2023, I was a Teaching Fellow in French and Year Abroad Support Coordinator at Durham University and the University of Manchester, where I taught on a wide range of language and content modules. For several years, I worked as a French Lecteur and Language Tutor at King’s College London and the University of Oxford. I was also PG Officer of the Society for French Studies (2018-2019) and ECR Rep of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes (2021-2023).  My admin roles at QMUL include MLC Outreach Lead and YA Coordinator for French.

Teaching

My interdisciplinary research into French and Francophone literature and cultural history informs my teaching philosophy, which involves cultivating empathy and curiosity through engagement with intercultural communication, animating primary material through transmedial approaches – most particularly music. I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2023.

Research

Publications

Edited Volume

‘The Return of the Author’, guest editor for the special issue of French Studies Bulletin (Oxford UP), 41 (2020)

Journal Articles

‘Monsieur, Je jours mon personnage: Jean Lorrain, construire sa propre légende’, Savoirs en prisme, 12 (2020): 235-252

‘Hyper-Toussaint: Poetics of the Intermedia in J.-P. Toussaint’s M.M.M.M.’ (Introduction), in ‘The Return of the Author’, French Studies Bulletin (Oxford UP), 41 (2020): 17-19

‘The Poison of Literature: On the Social and Literary Construction of Baron Adelswärd-Fersen’s Black Masses Scandal’, in Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 1 (2018): 56-80.

Book Chapters

'Le texte-échafaudage de Jean Lorrain' in D. Tononi (ed.), Les Chemins de l'imperfection, Reconfiguration d'un paradigme moderne (XIXe-XXIe siècle) (Classiques Garnier, 2024): 69-82

‘Saint Oscar: Revenances de Wilde dans la revue Akademos’, in N.G. Albert and P. Cardon (eds.), Akademos, mode d’emploi: la première revue homosexuelle française (1909) (Bibliothèque GayKitchCamp, 2022): 410-419

‘La poétique arlequine de Jean Lorrain à l’époque du Chat Noir’, in C. Crépiat, D. Saint-Amand, J. Schuh (eds.), Poétique du Chat Noir (1882-1897) (Paris Nanterre UP, 2021): 171-184

‘Lettres d’un ami mourant’, Postface, in Maurice de Guérin, Lettres à Barbey d’Aurevilly (L’Harmattan, 2018): 57-70

[With Pascal Noir] ‘Naissance du Rapsode’, Preface, in Jean Lorrain, Le Sang des dieux (L’Harmattan, 2017): 7-26

‘Greffer le mot de l’étranger dans la langue: le cas du français d’Oscar Wilde’, in J. Barda and D. Finch-Race (eds.), Textures. Processus et événements dans la création poétique moderne et contemporaine (Peter Lang, 2015): 119-134

Interviews

[With Ariana Saenz Espinoza] ‘Une cosmogonie de l’horreur’. Interview with Argentine author Mariana Enriquez, in La Quinzaine littéraire, 1252 (April 2023): 9-10

Dissemination

My research on Jean Lorrain and on Belle Époque literature, culture, the media more generally, along with my writings on the poetics of scandal, were used by award-winning English author Julian Barnes in the writing of his book The Man in the Red Coat (Jonathan Cape, 2019). More specifically, Barnes used parts of my research on the issue of representation in the wake of the 1904 Lorrain/Jacquemin case alongside the ‘Black Masses’ scandal.