Alina Cherry

Alina Cherry

Alina Cherry received her Ph.D. from New York University in 2009, with a dissertation on the treatment of time, history and memory in the novels of Claude Simon. Her current research and teaching interests include:

• Contemporary French and Francophone fiction.
• Mobilities studies.
• Geocriticism.
• Space and place.
• Claude Simon studies.
• Temporality and narrative.
• Intersections of philosophy and literature.

Her book, "Claude Simon: Fashioning the Past by Writing the Present," was published in 2016 by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

• Modern and Contemporary French and Francophone Literatures
• Claude Simon Studies
• Narrative and Temporality
• Space and Place
• Mobilities Studies
• Catastrophe Studies

Education

• Ph.D. with honors, French, New York University
• M.A., French, New York University
• B.A. summa cum laude, French, Georgia State University

Awards and grants

• Humanities Center Faculty Fellowship, “Transition,” Wayne State University, 2021
• Career Development Chair, Wayne State University, 2019-2020
• Graduate Research Assistant Award, Wayne State University, 2018-2019
• Humanities Center Faculty Fellowship, “Mobilities,” Wayne State University, 2016
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Award, Wayne State University, 2016
• Humanities Center Faculty Fellowship, “Borders and Intersections,” Wayne State University, 2012
• University Research Grant, Wayne State University, 2011
• Andrew Dulau Dissertation Fellowship, New York University, 2008
• Dean’s Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award in the Humanities, New York University, 2004

Selected publications

• Claude Simon: Fashioning the Past by Writing the Present. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016.

Articles (peer-reviewed)

• "Drame du lieu ou lieu du drame? Réflexions sur le lieu et les fonctions du paysage dans Les Petits chevaux de Tarquinia." Forthcoming in Cahiers Marguerite Duras 4.
• "Le potentiel de la marge: Fonctions du terrain vague chez Jean-Philippe Toussaint." The French Review 97.4 (May 2024): 37-52.
• "Catastrophe Televised: Accelerated Time, Telescoped Events, Distorted Perceptions." Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 27.4 (2023): 570-578. 
• “Painterly Letters: On the Possibilities of the Textual Reterritorialization of Painting.” Symposium 70.2 (Summer 2016): 53-65.
• “Miroitements pronominaux: vers la construction d’un agencement textuel dans Les Géorgiques de Claude Simon.” Nouvelles Francographies 4.2 (Fall 2013): 17-25.
• Dictionnaire Claude Simon. Ed. Michel Bertrand. 2 vols. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2013. “Tom Bishop” 1:121-122, “Chronologie” 1:191-197.
• "Personnages et lieux ou le vide de l'appropriation dans Le Vice-consul de Marguerite Duras." Modern Language Notes 127.4 (Sept. 2012): 865-888.
• “Espaces: transports, croisements, traversées dans Fuir de Jean-Philippe Toussaint.”  French Forum 37.3 (Fall 2012): 143-162.

 Translations

• Gilles Deleuze, Painting and the Question of Concepts, Seminar 2 (19,980 words). deleuze.cla.purdue.edu/

Courses taught by Alina Cherry

Winter Term 2025 (future)

• FRE2110 - French through Film II
• FRE8610 - Seminar in Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain

Winter Term 2024

• FRE2110 - French through Film II
• FRE4620 - Topics in Sociocultural Analysis
• FRE6620 - Topics in Sociocultural Analysis

Fall Term 2023

• FRE5415 - Topics in French and Francophone Literature
• FRE6300 - Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain
• FRE8415 - Topics in French and Francophone Literature

Winter Term 2023

• FRE2110 - French through Film II
• FRE4620 - Topics in Sociocultural Analysis
• FRE6620 - Topics in Sociocultural Analysis

Fall Term 2022

• FRE5415 - Topics in French and Francophone Literature
• FRE5600 - Translation Studies
• FRE8610 - Seminar in Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain

Winter Term 2022

• FRE2110 - French through Film II
• FRE8610 - Seminar in Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain