Damian Catani

Overview

Biography

I am Senior Lecturer and was Assistant Dean of the Department of Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics (2022-23). I have taught at Birkbeck since 2007. Previously, I taught at Nanterre (Paris X) 1997-98, and the Universities of Oxford (1998-2000) and Cambridge (2000-2007). My research specialisms are nineteenth-and twentieth-century French literature and thought, nineteenth-century poetry and the relationship between literature and ethics. Among my previous publications are two books: The Poet in Society: Art, Consumerism and Politics in Mallarmé (New York: Peter Lang, 2003); and Evil: A History in Modern French Literature and Thought (London: Bloomsbury, 2013). My most recent book, Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Journeys to the Extreme,was published by Reaktion press in September 2021.

Highlights

I completed a critical biography: Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Journeys to the Extreme (London, Reaktion Press, 2021).
I discuss this author in a BBC radio 3 programme on his famous novel Journey to the end of the Night:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06qy4b0
and also I discuss the rediscovery of his lost manuscripts on BBC Radio 4, Front Row:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ykpc

Qualifications

MA French and Italian , Oxon., 1995
D.Phil , Oxon, 2000

Administrative responsibilities

Assistant Dean, Department of Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics (2022-23)
Programme Director: BA Modern Languages (Term 1- 2023-24)
Module Convener: Dissertation in Cultures and Languages (Terms 1 and 3)
Module Convener: Culture and Text (Terms 1 and 3)

Visiting posts

Visiting Fellowship, University of Bloomington, Indiana, 10-2006 to 11-2006
Visiting Fellowship, Vanderbilt University, 10-2012 to 11-2012

Professional activities

Co-editor for journal Études Stéphane Mallarmé, 2013-present.

General editor, Études Stéphane Mallarmé, (since January 2022)

Research

Research interests

- Nineteeth- and Twentieth- Century French Literature and Thought
-Nineteenth-Century French poetry (especially Mallarmé and Baudelaire)
-French Literature and Evil
-Louis-Ferdinand Céline
André Malraux
The Public Intellectual

Research clusters and groups

Steering Committee, the Centre for French, Francophone and Comparative Studies (CFFCS).

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:: 5

Current doctoral researchers

MICHAEL THOMPSON

Nature of supervision:
Joint Principal Supervisor, Sep 2019 onwards

Title of thesis:
Beyond the silence: the French Catholic novel in the late twentieth century. An analysis of works by Françoise Mallet-Joris, Christiane Singer and Sylvie Germain.

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

PAULINE HARRIS

Nature of supervision:
Principal Supervisor, Oct 2017

Title of thesis:
From Urgent Understanding to Raw Writing: The Synergy of Journalism and Fiction in the Novels of Sorj Chalandon

Description:
Sorj Chalandon is an award-winning French journalist and author of ten novels.
My thesis argues that the complex interplay between his journalism and his fiction is critical to an understanding of his artistic evolution.

Awarded:
2023
KERRY WILLIAM PURCELL

Nature of supervision:
Principal Supervisor

Title of thesis:
The Militant Historian: The concept of history in the work of Alain Badiou

Awarded:
2022
KIT WONG

Nature of supervision:
Principal Supervisor

Awarded:
2018

Teaching

Teaching modules

Reading Transnational Cultures (Level 5) (ARCL022S5)
Studying Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies in Modern Languages (ARCL059S7)
Research Skills Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Languages) Introduction (ARCL060Z7)
Memory and History (ARCL065S7)
Dissertation in Cultures and Languages (ARCL123S6)
French 5 (AREL072S6)
Contemporary Literature in French (Level 5) (ARLL007S5)
Culture and Text (ARLL010S4)

Publications

Article

Catani, Damian (2016) Louis-Ferdinand Céline, literary genius or national pariah? Defining moral parameters for influential cultural figures, post- Charlie Hebdo. French Cultural Studies 27 (3), pp. 268-278. ISSN 0957-1558.
Catani, Damian (2014) Hannah Arendt reconsidered: collaboration and the banality of evil in Jonathan Littell's "The Kindly Ones". Sociology Study 4 (8), pp. 661-672. ISSN 2159‐5526.
Catani, Damian (2014) Re/deconstructing the rimbaud myth: Kerouac and Mallarmé. AmeriQuests 11 (1), ISSN 1553-4316.
Catani, Damian (2013) The "Spleen" and "Ideal" of opium: Baudelaire and Thomas de Quincey. Dix-Neuf 17 (3), pp. 237-250. ISSN 1478-7318.
Catani, Damian (2013) Book review: Bourdieu and literature by John R. W. Speller. French Studies 67 (4), pp. 579-580. ISSN 0016-1128.
Catani, Damian (2012) Modernity, evil and ethics: a Sartrean and Bataillean reading of Baudelaire’s ‘Le Jeu’. Dix-Neuf 16 (3), pp. 260-270. ISSN 14787318.
Catani, Damian (2012) Book Review: Fin de baudelaire: autopsie d'une œuvre sans nom by Jean Louis Cornille. French Studies 66 (4), pp. 569-570. ISSN 0016-1128.
Catani, Damian (2009) Book review: between Baudelaire and Mallarmé: voice, conversation and music. French Studies 65 (3), pp. 396-397. ISSN 0016-1128.
Catani, Damian (2007) Notions of evil in Baudelaire. Modern Language Review 102 (4), pp. 990-1007. ISSN 0026-7937.
Catani, Damian (1999) Consumerism and the discourse of fashion in Mallarmé's 'La Dernière Mode'. Mots Pluriels 10,

Book

Catani, Damian P. (2021) Louis-Ferdinand Celine: journeys to the extreme. London, UK: Reaktion press. ISBN 9781789144673.
Catani, Damian (2013) Evil: a history in modern French literature and thought. London, UK: Continuum Books. ISBN 9781441185563.
Catani, Damian (2003) The poet in society: art, consumerism and politics in Mallarme. Currents in Comparative Romance Languages and Literatures. Peter Lang. ISBN 9780820457772.

Book Review

Catani, Damian (2009) Baudelaire, poète comique.
Catani, Damian (2006) 'New Approaches to Zola: Selected Papers from the 2002 Cambridge Centenary Colloquium' by Hannah Thompson.
Catani, Damian (2003) Parole mancanti: l'incompiuto nell'opera di Mallarmé.
Catani, Damian (2002) Mallarmé and the poetics of everyday life: a study of the concept of the ordinary in his verse and prose.
Catani, Damian (2001) Poetry's appeal. Nineteenth-Century French lyric and the political space. by E. S. Burt. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. Pp. 287. £11.95.

Book Section

Catani, Damian (2019) From victims to perpetrators: the banality of evil in Jonathan Littell’s 'The Kindly Ones'. In: Dihal, K. (ed.) Perspectives on Evil: From Banality to Genocide. At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries. Oxford, UK: Brill. pp. 3-24. ISBN 9789004365827.
Catani, Damian (2019) Rediscovering Beckford's 'satiric gravity': Mallarme's rehabilitation of Vathek. In: Louth, Charlie and McGuinness, Patrick (eds.) Gravity and Grace - Essays for Roger Pearson. Legenda (General Series). Oxford, UK: MHRA. pp. 112-129. ISBN 9781781887875.
Catani, Damian (2018) Mallarme, «Vathek» et L'Orient. In: Millan, G. (ed.) Mallarmé à Tournon et au-delà. Paris, France: Classiques Garnier. ISBN 9782406066699.
Catani, Damian (2014) 'Vice urbain et colonialisme dans Mademoiselle Bistouri et La Belle Dorothee'. In: Guyaux, A. and Scepi, A. (eds.) Lire 'Le Spleen de Paris' de Baudelaire. Paris: Presses de l'Universite Sorbonne. pp. 25-33. ISBN 9782840509738.
Catani, Damian (2011) The French Revolution: historical necessity or historical evil? Terror and slavery in Hugo’s Quatrevingt-treize and Confiant’s "L’Archet du colonel". In: Evans, D. and Griffiths, K. (eds.) Institutions and Power in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Culture. Faux Titre. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi. pp. 51-68. ISBN 9789042033849.
Catani, Damian (2005) Capitalism reviewed: the perspectives of Villiers, Zola and Mallarmé. In: Capitanio, S. and Downing, L. and Rowe, P. and White, N. (eds.) Currencies: Fiscal Fortunes and Cultural Capital in Nineteenth-Century France. French Studies of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Peter Lang. pp. 59-71. ISBN 9783039105137.
Catani, Damian (2003) The poet as democrat: art in relation to consumerism in Mallarmé’s 'La Dernière Mode'. In: Kinloch, D. and Millan, G. (eds.) Situating Mallarmé. French Studies of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Peter Lang. pp. 69-83. ISBN 9783906766188.

Conference Item

Catani, Damian (2011) Mal et modernité: vice urbain et colonialisme dans Mademoiselle Bistouri et La belle Dorothée. Baudelaire in the world - Critical Traditions and Translations, 2011, Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris

External Repositories

Reaktion Press

Business and community

Outreach

BBC Radio 3, Free Thinking, Panel Discussion on Louis-Ferdinand Celine (November 2018): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00011f6

BBC Radio 4, Front Row (August 2021), Interview with Samira Ahmed on Louis-Ferdinand Celine:https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ykpc

Talk on Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Vanderbilt University, April 21st, 2021:

https://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/pubmedia/bandy.php?file=barsky20210421

Invited speaker: 'The Controversial Legacy of Louis-Ferdinand Céline: a re-evaluation in light of recent discoveries.'

Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, The University of Toronto, September 27th, 2024