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Brian Nelson
Professor Emeritus, French Studies and Translation Studies
School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics
Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
Phone: (+61 3) 94174550 (h)
[email protected]
http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/brian-nelson/
Born Holbeach, Lincolnshire, UK, 29 Sep 1946; British citizen; Permanent Resident in Australia
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Education
B.A. Cambridge (Downing College), 1968: First Class Honours in Modern and Medieval Languages.
Awarded College Prize and title of Scholar.
M.A. Cambridge (Downing College), 1972
D.Phil. Oxford (New College), 1979
Employment
Lecteur d’anglais, École Normale Supérieure (rue d’Ulm), University of Paris (1970–71)
Lecturer in French, Aberystwyth University (1973–84); Senior Lecturer (1984–86)
Professor of French Studies, Monash University, Melbourne (1986–2008)
Head, Department of Romance Languages (1986–98); Founding Director, Centre for
European Studies (1987–92, 1995–2000); Founding Head, School of Languages, Literatures,
Cultures & Linguistics (2001–05)
Honours and awards
Elected Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities (2011)
Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (2003)
Winner, New South Wales Premier’s Prize for Literary Translation (2015)
Runner-up, International Federation of Translators “Aurora Borealis” Prize for Outstanding
Translation of Fiction (2011)
Jebb Studentship (University of Cambridge) (1969–71)
Visiting positions
Visiting Fellow, New College, Oxford (Hilary Term 1990)
Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University, Bloomington, US (Oct 1993)
Fellow, Salzburg Global Seminar: “Traduttore Traditore? Recognizing and Promoting the Critical
Role of Translation in a Global Culture”; co-convenor with Michael Henry Heim of the
working group on The Role of the Academy in Promoting Translation (Feb 2009)
Brown Foundation Fellow, Dora Maar House, Ménerbes, France (June 2014)
Residential Fellow, Maison Suger, Institut d’Études Avancées, Fondation Maison des Sciences de
l’Homme, Paris (Aug-Sep 2009); Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France (Sep-Dec 2006)
Translator-in-residence, Collège International des Traducteurs Littéraires, Arles (Oct 2015, AugSep 2012, Sep-Oct 2009, June 2006, April 2004, Aug 2001, June-July 1998, July 1997); Casa
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delle Traduzioni, Rome (June 2013); Collège Européen des Traducteurs Littéraires de
Seneffe, Belgium (Aug 2010); British Centre for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia
(July 2001)
Publications
Work in progress
Émile Zola. Under commission by Reaktion Books (“Critical Lives” series). US distributors: University
of Chicago Press.
Marcel Proust, Swann in Love (Un amour de Swann). A new translation with Introduction and Notes
(the latter by Adam Watt). Under commission by Oxford University Press.
Émile Zola, His Excellency Eugène Rougon (Son Excellence Eugène Rougon). A new translation with
Introduction and Notes. Under commission by Oxford University Press.
Introduction and Notes to A Love Story (Une page d’amour) and Doctor Pascal (Le Docteur Pascal) by
Émile Zola. Under commission by Oxford University Press.
Books: authored
The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2015. 296pp.
Zola and the Bourgeoisie. London: Macmillan, 1983. 230pp.
“beautifully places the novelist and his novels” – Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experience, II, p.
457; “a major contribution to Zola scholarship” – Philip Walker, French Review 59.3 (Feb.
1986).
Émile Zola: A Selective Analytical Bibliography. London: Grant & Cutler, 1982. 150pp
“Indispensable reference work” – David Baguley, Critical Essays on Emile Zola, p. 191.
Books: translations with introduction and notes
Émile Zola, Earth (La Terre). Oxford University Press (Oxford World’s Classics). (Translation with Julie
Rose.) In press.
Émile Zola, The Fortune of the Rougons (La Fortune des Rougon). Oxford University Press (Oxford
World’s Classics), 2012. xxx + 301 pp. Sales to date: 4,200.
“If there has been an occasional edition of the novel issued in English in recent times, there
has been none to compare with [this] impeccable translation” (David Baguley, Bulletin of the
Emile Zola Society)
Émile Zola. The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris). Oxford University Press (Oxford World’s Classics),
2007. xxxiii + 287pp. Sales to date: 19,000.
Émile Zola. The Kill (La Curée). Oxford University Press (Oxford World’s Classics), 2004. xxxix +
275pp. Sales to date: 15,700.
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“Nelson’s … introduction [has] a depth of analysis rarely found in introductions of this
kind ... The translation itself is sensitive and elegant ... the text reads as an engaging and
thoughtful close rereading of the original…” (Modern Language Review)
Émile Zola. Pot Luck (Pot-Bouille). Oxford University Press (Oxford World’s Classics), 1999. xxiv +
381pp. Sales to date: 13,000.
Émile Zola. The Ladies’ Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames). Oxford University Press (Oxford World’s
Classics), 1995. xxxi + 438pp. BBC tie-in edition published October 2012. Sales to date: 83,000.
Dramatized as the “Classic Serial”, BBC Radio 4, 1997; used as the basis for two BBC TV
series, The Paradise (2012–13). Short-listed for the SBS/Dinny O’Hearn Prize for Literary
Translation (Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 1997).
Other translations:
J.-K. Huysmans. Downstream (A vau-l’eau). Monash University: The Leros Press, 2000. 67–78.
(Excerpt from Part III.)
Extracts from the writings of Arthur de Gobineau, in Michael D. Biddiss (ed.), Gobineau: Selected
Political Writings (London: Jonathan Cape, 1970), pp. 145–76, 203–47.
Books: edited
Perspectives on Literature and Translation: Creation, Circulation, Reception. Co-ed. with Brigid
Maher. New York and London: Routledge (Routledge Advances in Translation Studies), 2013. 224pp.
Reviewed in the Translation Review 89.1 (2014): 85–88. “[This collection] argues for literary
translation to be seen as a mode of critical reading and, in these subtle and varied chapters, proves
its point.”
The Cambridge Companion to Émile Zola. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 214pp.
After Blanchot: Literature, Philosophy, Criticism. Co-ed. with Leslie Hill and Dimitris Vardoulakis,
Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005. 286pp.
Practising Theory: Pierre Bourdieu and the Field of Cultural Production. Co-ed. with Jeff Browitt.
Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004. 131pp.
Telling Performances: Readings of Gender, Narrative and Performance. Co-ed. with Anne Freadman
and Philip Anderson. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2001. 265pp.
Women Seeking Expression: France 1789–1914. Co-ed. with Rosemary Lloyd. Melbourne: Monash
Romance Studies, 2000. 275pp.
The People’s Voice: Essays on European Romanticism. Co-ed. with Andrea Ciccarelli and John C.
Isbell. Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies, 1999. 150pp.
Forms of Commitment: Intellectuals in Contemporary France. Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies,
1995. 192pp.
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Naturalism in the European Novel: New Critical Perspectives. London: Bloomsbury (formerly New
York/Oxford: Berg), 1992. 280pp. (Introduction, pp. 1-9.)
The Idea of Europe. Co-ed. with David Roberts and Walter Veit. London: Bloomsbury (formerly New
York/Oxford: Berg), 1992. 180pp. (Introduction with David Roberts, pp. i-xi.)
The European Community in the 1990s. Co-ed. with David Roberts and Walter Veit. London:
Bloomsbury (formerly New York/Oxford: Berg), 1992. 220pp. (Introduction with David Roberts, pp.
viii-xiii.)
Critical editions
Émile Zola: “Thérèse Raquin”. London: Bloomsbury (formerly Bristol Classical Press), 1993. xxxviii
+150pp.
Jean Giono: “Colline”. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986. xxxii + 96pp.
Journal issues edited
“In Other Words: the Art of Translation.” Australian Journal of French Studies 47.1 (2010).
“Translation and/as Culture.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 28.4 (2007).
“Tongues.” Meanjin 64.4 (2005). (Special issue on Translation, with contributions by John Coetzee,
Brian Castro, et al.)
“Zola: Modern Perspectives.” Australian Journal of French Studies 38.3 (2001).
“Imagining the City.” Journal of Urban History 27.6 (2001).
“Popular Culture in Postwar France.” Australian Journal of French Studies 35.1 (1998).
“Intellectuals in Europe.” Meanjin 52.1 (1993).
“Travellers’ Tales: Literary Journeys Real and Imaginary.” Romance Studies 21
(Winter 1992/Spring 1993).
Book chapters and scholarly articles (* = invited; # = commissioned)
#“The Remaking of Paris: Zola and Haussmann.” The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Paris.
Ed. Anna-Louise Milne. Cambridge University Press, 2013. 103–19.
“Realism: Mirage or Model?” Romance Studies 30.3-4 (2012): 149–52.
#“Zola: Naturalism.” The Cambridge Companion to European Novelists. Ed. Michael Bell. Cambridge
University Press, 2012. 294–309.
“Literature and Globalization: Some Thoughts on Translation and the Transnational.” The AALITRA
Review 3 (May 2011): 53–63. (With David Roberts.)
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*“Alfred Jarry: the Art of the Grotesque.” Groteske Moderne - Moderne Groteske: Festschrift für
Philip Thomson / Festschrift for Philip Thomson. Ed. Franz-Josef Deiters, Axel Fliethmann and
Christiane Weller. St. Ingbert: Röhrig Universitätsverlag, 2011. 205–12.
“Translation Lost and Found.” Australian Journal of French Studies 47.1 (2010): 3–7.
“Translating Cultures, Cultures of Translation.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 28.4 (2007): 361–65.
*“Dandies, Dandyism, and the Uses of Style.” Moderne begreifen (Understanding Modernity). Ed.
Christine Magerski, Christiane Weller and Robert Savage. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag,
2007. 135–43.
“Zola and the Nineteenth Century.” The Cambridge Companion to Emile Zola. Ed. Brian Nelson.
Cambridge University Press, 2007. 1–18.
“Blood on the Tracks: Zola’s La Bête humaine.” Australian Journal of French Studies 43.1 (2006):
13–18.
“The Politics of Style: Zola’s L’Assommoir.” Meanjin 64.4 (2005): 90–98.
“Émile Zola.” Australian Book Review 273 (Aug 2005): 55–60.
“Driven to Excess: Nana and Consumerism.” Australian Journal of French Studies 42.2 (2005):
185–91.
“Chasing Rimbauds.” Australian Journal of French Studies 39.2 (2002): 314–24.
“Nana: Uses of the Female Body.” Australian Journal of French Studies 38.3 (2001): 407–29.
*“Foreword.” New Perspectives on the Fin de Siècle in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France.
Ed. Kay Chadwick and Timothy Unwin. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
ix–xi.
“Baudelaire and Flowers of Evil.” Charles Baudelaire. Flowers of Evil. A new translation by Valerie
Grünwald. Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies, 1999. 3–9.
*“Flaubert and Semanalysis: Rereading L’Éducation sentimentale.” Narrative Voices in Modern French
Fiction. Ed. Michael Cardy, George Evans and Gabriel Jacobs. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1997.
101–12.
“Désir et consommation dans Au Bonheur des Dames.” Les Cahiers naturalistes 70 (1996): 19–34.
*“L’extrême Europe se trouve aux antipodes: l'Australie.” L'Esprit de l’Europe, 3 vols. Ed. Antoine
Compagnon and Jacques Seebacher. Paris: Flammarion, 1993, vol. 1 (Dates et Lieux). 330–35.
“Zola and the Counter Revolution: Au Bonheur des Dames.” Australian Journal of French Studies 30.2
(1993): 233–40.
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*“Zola’s Ideology: the Road to Utopia.” Critical Essays on Emile Zola. Ed. David Baguley. Boston: G.
K. Hall & Co., 1986. 161–72.
“Realism: Model or Mirage?” Romance Studies 1 (Winter 1982): 1-17. Repr. in Romance Studies 30.34 (2012) (Special Issue: Realism Revisited): 153–63.
“Art and Nothingness: Sartre on Flaubert.” Modern & Contemporary France 11 (Autumn 1982):
23–26.
“Zola and the Ideology of Messianism.” Orbis Litterarum 37 (1982): 70–82.
“Pot-Bouille, étude sociale et roman comique.” Les Cahiers naturalistes 55 (1981): 74–92.
“Lukács, Zola, and the Aesthetics of Realism.” Studi Francesi 71 (1980): 251–55.
“Energy and Order in Zola's L’Argent.” Australian Journal of French Studies 17.3 (1980): 275–300.
“Zola’s Metaphoric Language: A Paragraph from La Curée.” Modern Languages 59 (June 1978):
61–64.
“Zola and the Bourgeoisie: A Reading of Pot-Bouille.” Nottingham French Studies 17 (May 1978):
58–70.
“Speculation and Dissipation: A Reading of Zola’s La Curée.” Essays in French Literature 14 (1977):
1–33.
“Black Comedy: Notes on Zola’s Pot-Bouille.” Romance Notes 17 (Winter 1976): 156–61.
“Zola and the Ambiguities of Passion: Une page d'amour.” Essays in French Literature 10 (1973):
1–22.
Papers in refereed conference proceedings
“Translation and World Literature.” “Bridging Cultures”: Proceedings of the XIX World Congress of the
International Federation of Translators (San Francisco, Aug 1–4, 2011), 111–18.
(A modified version of “Literature and Globalization”: see Scholarly articles.)
“Jean Giono: idéologie et utopie.” Visages de la Provence: Zola, Cézanne, Giono… (actes du colloque
international d’Aix-en-Provence, 19–21 octobre 2007). Ed. Valerie Minogue and Patrick Pollard.
London: The Emile Zola Society, 2008. 179–86.
“Lukács and Zola: Some Problems of Marxist Aesthetics.” Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the
International Comparative Literature Association (Innsbruck, 1979), vol. 4: Evolution of the Novel.
Ed. Zoran Konstantinovic, Manfred Naumann and Hans Robert Jauss. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker
Gesellschaft zur Pflege der Geisteswissenschaften, 1982. 305–09.
Other publications
“Found in Translation: Correspondence.” Quarterly Essay 53 (2014): 98–100.
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“Editorial: AJFS at 50.” Australian Journal of French Studies 50.3 (2013): 303–04.
“Émile Zola and the integrity of representation.” OUPblog. Posted September 29, 2013.
“Perspectives on Translation.” Humanities Australia: the journal of the Australian Academy of the
Humanities 4 (2013): 35–43. (With Rita Wilson.)
“Translating Zola”, The Warwick Review 6.4 (Dec 2012): 45–50.
“The divine stenographer: Victor Hugo and the glory of narrative.” Australian Book Review 338 (July
2011): 60–61. (Commentary.)
“The great impersonators.” Australian Literary Review 5.10 (November 2010): 7, 22. Also in The
AALITRA Review 2 (Nov 2010): 48-53. (Review article on Edith Grossman, Why Translation Matters;
Umberto Eco, Experiences in Translation; Antoine Berman, Toward a Translation Criticism: John
Donne.)
“Invisible labour.” Australian Literary Review 4.4 (May 2009): 22–23. (Review article on André Gorz,
Story of D; Catherine Rey, Stepping Out; Victor Hugo, Les Misérables – all translated by Julie Rose.)
A comprehensive bibliography on Maupassant (books, articles, theses, films, etc. published or
produced in Australia) for inclusion in Bibliographie des Écrivains Français: Guy de Maupassant.
2 vols. Ed. Yvan Leclerc. Les Editions Memini, Turnhout (Belgium): Brepols, 2009.
“Literature of the street.” Australian Book Review 304 (Sep 2008): 53–54. (Review of Rosemary
Lloyd, Charles Baudelaire, Reaktion Press, 2008.)
“Zola lost and found in translators’ art.” The Age, Melbourne (Sep 15, 2007): 20 (A2).
“Jeanne genie.” Australian Literary Review 3.3 (April 2008): 20. (Review article on Evelyne BlochDano, Madame Proust, University of Chicago Press, 2007.)
“Defending Dreyfus.” The Age, Melbourne (April 8, 2006): 14–15 (A2).
“Translating David Malouf.” In Other Words 17 (Summer 2001): 43–50.
“Against Nature: Fashion, Dandyism, Decadence.” Carnet austral 10 (March 1999): 4–6.
“Teaching Disciplinary Knowledge in First-Year Modern Language Courses.” Carnet austral 4
(March 1996): 4–8.
Research supervision
I have supervised or co-supervised 15 PhDs to successful completion.
Book series editorships
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General Editor, Monash Romance Studies (1995–2008). I established this monograph series in
1995. 21 volumes were published. From 2001 the series was published under the imprint of the
University of Delaware Press and distributed worldwide by Associated University Presses.
General Editor, Berg European Studies Series (New York/Oxford: Berg) (1989–94).
Journal editorships
Editor, Australian Journal of French Studies (2002 to date)
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/french/ajfs/subscriptions.php
This journal, which appears three times a year, has enjoyed a high international reputation since its
foundation in 1963. I have taken various initiatives to raise its profile further, giving more
emphasis to the preparation of numbers focused on specific themes, ensuring a higher level of
international involvement, and negotiating the journal’s publication and distribution by Liverpool
University Press (from Jan 2012). Selected special numbers:
Playtime
Écrivains au travail / Writers at Work
Francophonie and its Futures
In Other Words: the Art of Translation
New Directions in French Medieval Studies
(Rétro)projections: French Cinema in the Twenty-first Century
Voices from North Africa
Sex in Contemporary French Writing
Soi-disant: Writing, Screening, Theorizing the Self in French
French Noir: Fiction and Film
Editor, The AALITRA Review: A Journal of Literary Translation (2009–13); Special Editorial Adviser
since 2013. In 2009 I instigated the creation of this peer-reviewed online journal (see also below).
There are two issues per year. The journal is published under the aegis of the National Library of
Australia, from whose website it can be downloaded:
http://aalitra.org.au/the-aalitra-review/
Founding co-editor (1982–86) with Valerie Minogue of the journal Romance Studies.
Advisory editorships, etc.
Editorial Board, XIX (the online journal of the British Society of Dix-Neuviémistes) (since 2002).
Australian Correspondent, Les Cahiers naturalistes and Modern & Contemporary France (since 1993).
Member, Comité scientifique (Advisory Board), Société Française de Traductologie (since 2015)
Advisory Board, Australian Book Review (2004–07).
Consultant editor, Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture, ed. Alex Hughes and Keith Reader
(London: Routledge, 1998).
Professional service
Founding President, Australian Society for French Studies (1994–96; member since 1994).
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President, AALITRA (Australian Association for Literary Translation) http://aalitra.org.au/
(2007–15). AALITRA is a national organization that promotes an interest in all aspects of literary
translation. It sponsors public lectures and events on literary translation and holds periodic
seminars and workshops on translation. It also distributes information about events, conferences,
publications and other initiatives relevant to translators. In 2014 we launched the AALITRA
Translation Prize, which will offer prizes biennially for translations of a selected prose text and a
selected poem. The source language will change on a rotating basis; the focus language in 2014
was Spanish.
In 2012 I was invited by the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH) to develop a proposal
for an AAH Medal for Excellence in Translation and, subsequently, to seek funding to establish the
prize (which will recognize excellence in non-literary as well as literary translation and will
alternate with the NSW Premier’s Prize for Literary Translation). The required funding was
secured by mid-2014 and the prize was advertised in May 2015.
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