People

Core Faculty Member

  • Carole Allamand
  • Carole Allamand
  • Professor of French
  • Undergraduate Director
  • Office Location:  AB 4184, CAC 
  • Office Hours: W 1:30-4:30 pm
  • Phone: (848) 932-3544

Education:

B.A., M.A., University of Geneva, Switzerland
Ph.D., Cornell University

Fields of Research:

XXth and XXIst-century French fiction, life writing, literature and psychoanalysis, critical animal studies. 

While I research and teach in these areas, I am also active in creative writing and translation. My latest book, Tout garder, is a personal essay on hoarding disorder; it was shortlisted for the Prix Médicis (Essays category) in 2022, and its paperback reprint was included by Éditions Points among the six Best Narratives of 2025. Press coverage is available here. My French translation of Carol Anshaw’s Aquamarine appeared in Fall 2023. I am currently working on a new book exploring sport in contemporary French literary fiction as a stage where modern myths take shape, society and the self are reflected, and the act of writing itself is brought into focus.

I have been advising students since I joined the French Department in 2000. I also directed immersion programs in Paris and Aix-en-Provence. As Undergraduate Director, I welcome inquiries regarding course planning, study abroad opportunities, career development–or anything “French” you’d like to know but are afraid to ask! If needed, I also serve as a mediator between undergraduate students and French faculty/instructors.

Feel free to stop by on Wednesdays (1:30–4:30 pm) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for an in-person or Zoom conversation.

Books:

Other Publications:

  • "The Autobiographical Pact, Forty-Five Years Later." The European Journal of Life Writing. Special issue: A Festschrift for Philippe Lejeune. Volume VII (2018): 51-56.
  • “Du Sommaire au Moindre: l'humanité en fuite.” Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: Sites 16.4 (2012): 517-524.
  • "James Ellroy." The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Fiction.  D. Madden, L. Nieland, and P. O'Donnell, eds. New York and London, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
  • “L’autre face du monde: à propos d’Anne-Marie Garat.” Women in French Studies 18 (2010): 83-100.
  • “Sur le dos du goéland: petite poétique de Jean Rouaud.” Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: Sites 14.3 (2010): 257-266.
  • "Amies mortelles: autobiographie et résistance à la psychanalyse."  MLN 123.4 (2008): 777-796.
  • “L’auteur est dans l’escalier: une relecture de La promesse de l’aube de Romain Gary.” Les Lettres Romanes LXI 61.3-4 (2007): 335-348.
  • “Annie Ernaux: à la serpe, à l’aiguille et au couteau.” The Romanic Review 97.2 (June 2006): 201-212.
  • “A Tooth For a Private Eye: James Ellroy's Detective Fiction.” The Journal of Popular Culture 39.3 (May 2006): 349-364.
  • "La Voix du Paradis ou la Québécitude de Jack Kerouac." Etudes françaises 40.1 (2004): 131-148.
  • "Reading Prohibited: The Politics of Yourcenar's Prefaces." Subversive Subjects: Reading Marguerite Yourcenar. J. Holland Sarnecki and I. Majer O'Sickey, eds. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (2004): 77-100.
  • "Au défaut des mères: Duras, Yourcenar et la question de la création littéraire." The French Review 75.5 (April 2002): 891-902.
  • "A/Lexis: le silence dans Alexis ou le Traité du Vain Combat." Roman 20-50, 30 (December 2000): 153-163.

Graduate Courses:

  • Writing the Disaster
  • New Literary Animals
  • Interpretation(s)
  • Fact and Fiction
  • Silence(s)
  • Autobiography and Its Discontents
  • Bringing the Louvre into the French Classroom [MAT]
  • French Dreams of America [MAT]

Undergraduate Courses:

  • Keeping It Real: Life Writing in France from 1975 to the Present
  • The French Writing Workshop
  • Cyberselves: Autobiography and the Internet
  • Childhood Memories
  • Representing Animals: The Case of Bears [Byrne Seminar] 
  • Paris Mysteries: An Introduction to French Crime Fiction
  • Aspects of French Literature I and II
  • The French Novel (1800-Present)
  •  French Civilization from the Revolution to the Present

Awards and Distinctions:

  • Tout garder was short-listed for the Prix Médicis de l’essai in 2022.
  • La plume de l'ours was short-listed for the Prix Goncourt du premier roman in 2013.
  • SAS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Undergraduate Education. Rutgers University. (2011)
  • Corson French Prize. Cornell University. (1998 and 1995)