Damian Catani
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Overview
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
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)
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Research
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).
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Current doctoral researchers
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ALFIA NAKIPBEKOVA
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MICHAEL THOMPSON
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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PAULINE HARRIS
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KERRY WILLIAM PURCELL
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KIT WONG
Teaching
Teaching modules
- 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)
- French 4 (Level 4) (ARCL106S4)
- Dissertation in Cultures and Languages (ARCL123S6)
- French 5 (AREL072S6)
- Culture and Text (ARLL010S4)
- Representations of Gender, Love and Sexuality (Level 5) (LNLN024S5)
- Masterpieces of French Literature and Culture from the Eighteenth Century to Postmodernity (Level 5) (LNLN026S5)
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Publications
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
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Business and community
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