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Richard L. Shryock

Richard Shryock, Associate Professor of French

Richard Shryock,  Associate Professor of French
Richard Shryock, Associate Professor of French

Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
335 Major Williams Hall 
220 Stanger Street 
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-4605 |  shryock@vt.edu

Richard Shryock is an associate professor of French at Virginia Tech. His first book Tales of Storytelling (Peter Lang 1993) examines embedded narrative in French 19th and 20th centuries. His articles have explored a variety of 19th- and 20th-century writers from Joris-Karl Huysmans to Michel Tournier.

The Symbolist writer and art critic Gustave Kahn was the subject of a number of projects: Lettres à Gustave et Rachel Kahn (Nizet, 1996), co-curating with Françoise Lucbert an exhibition “Gustave Kahn (1859-1936): Ecrivain symboliste et critique d’art” (2006-7) at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme in Paris, as well as co-editing a collection of essays Gustave Kahn: Un Ecrivain engagé (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2013).

Shryock has done considerable work on the politics of the French Symbolist movement including extensive work in numerous archives in Europe and the United States.  He is working to complete a manuscript on the topic.

He co-organizes with Gayle Zachmann (Univ. of Florida) and Sophie Lucet (Université de Paris) an annual workshop “Cultural Production in the 19th Century” held at the Université de Paris.

  • French Symbolist movement in literature
  • French anarchism in the fin de siècle
  • Decadence in in the fin de siècle France
  • Gustave Kahn
  • Intersections of literature and politics
  • Literary censorship
  • PhD, University of Michigan 1987
  • Diplôme d’études approfondies. Université de Haute Bretagne – Rennes II 1985
  • MA, University of Michigan 1984
  • BA, Ohio State University 1980
  • Chair, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures (2006-2012)
  • Associate Chair, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures (2005-2006)
  • Director of the French Program (1989‑90, 1993‑1994, spring 1995, 1995-1996, 1997-1998, 1999-2000, 2004-6, 2013-15, 2017-19)
  • College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Award for Excellence in Administration 2012
  • Provost's Award for Excellence in Advising 2002
  • Certificate of Teaching Excellence spring 2001

Books

  • Gustave Kahn. Un écrivain engagé. Rennes (France), Presses universitaires de Rennes.   2013. Co-edited with Françoise Lucbert (Université de Laval, Quebec City,  Canada).
  • Lettres à Gustave et Rachel Kahn.  Saint-Genouph:  A.-G. Nizet, 1996.  Selection, annotation, and preface by Richard Shryock.
  • Tales of Storytelling:  Embedded Narrative in Modern French Literature.  New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993.

Journal Articles

  • “Paterne Berrichon, Avant de devenir le beau-frère posthume de Rimbaud,” Parade sauvage. Revue d’études rimbaldiennes, 29, 2018 : 119-131.
  • “Decadent Anarchists and Anarchist Decadents in 1880s Paris.” Dix-neuf: Journal of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes. 21. 2-3. 2017: 104-15.
  • "Reading Models:  Embedded Narrative and Ideology in La Goutte d'or."  Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 249, Gale Cengage, Farmington Hills, MI, 2008, pp 66-73. This is a reprint in of a 1991 article. (See below.)
  • "Becoming Political: Symbolist Literature and the Third Republic." Nineteenth-Century French Studies 33:3-4. (Spring-Summer, 2005): 385-98.
  • "Anarchism at the Dawn of Symbolism" Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Gale Cengage, Farmington Hills, MI, 2004. Vol 144, pp 97-105.  This is a reprint of the article published in 2000 in French Forum. (See below.)
  • “French:  The Most Practical Foreign Language.” American Association of Teachers of French National Bulletin. 29: 1. (2003): 39-40.
  • "Symbolism and Naturalism: Frères-Ennemis."  Excavatio.  XIV. 1-2 (2001): 267-76.
  • "Anarchism at the Dawn of Symbolism" French Forum, January 2000: 291-308.
  • “Reaction Within Symbolism:  The Ecole Romane.French Review 71: 4. (1998): 577-84.
  • "L'Autoréférentialité dans la littérature décadente‑symboliste:  De l'illisible au social."  Symposium XLVIII.1 (1994): 78‑88. 
  •  "Ce Cri Rompit le Cauchemar Qui l'Opprimait:  Huysmans and the Politics of A rebours."  The French Review 66.2 (1992):  243-254.
  •  "A Political Reading of Florent's Tale: Emile Zola's Use of Embedded Narrative in Le Ventre de Paris."  The Journal of Narrative Technique XXII.1 (1992):  48‑56.
  • "Reading Models:  Embedded Narrative and Ideology in La Goutte d'or."  Modern Language Studies XXI.3 (1991):  65‑75. 
  • "Discourse and Polyphony in La peste."  Symposium XLIV.1 (1990):  58‑66.  

Book Chapters

  • “The Symbolist Movement: Anarchism and the Avant-Garde in Fin-de-Siècle France” in Anarchism and the Avant-Garde: Radical Arts and Politics in Perspective. Brill: Leiden, 2019. 13-36.
  • “Introduction: Le Rêve est indistinct de la vie.” Gustave Kahn. Un écrivain engagé. Presses universitaires de Rennes. 2013: 17-51. Co-authored with Françoise Lucbert.
  • “Transformer le monde à travers l’art pur.”  Gustave Kahn. Un écrivain engagé. Presses universitaires de Rennes. 2013: 53-67.
  • “Des Vers anarchistes?”  Le Vers libre dans tous ses états: Histoire et Poétique d’une forme (1886-1914), 101-108. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2009.
  • US Department of Education Title VI Grant: Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program.  Grant title: “Developing International Opportunities in Business and French” (July 1, 2001- June 30, 2004; $388,659 [includes matching funds]).  Co-written by Sharon Johnson and Richard Shryock.  Co-directed by Sharon Johnson, Richard Shryock and Robert Sumichrast.

“Decadent Anarchists and Anarchist Decadents in Fin-de-Siècle France,” La Décadence dans tous ses états / States of Decadence, Østfold University College, Halden, Norway, June 11-13, 2014. Keynote presentation.

Co-curator with Françoise Lucbert of “Gustave Kahn (1859-1936): Écrivain symboliste et critique d’art” at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme in Paris, France (October 24, 2006 – January 24, 2007).  The exhibition consisted of approximately 180 items most of which were held privately by Kahn’s grandson and included original manuscripts, photographs, correspondence, a voice recording of Kahn reciting his poetry and art from several neo-impressionist and Ecole de Paris artists.  

Director of the Virginia Tech Summer Study Program in Paris (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 [co-director], 1999, 2000, 2006 [co-director]), 2015).

Co-organizer with Gayle Zachmann (Univ. of Florida) and Sophie Lucet (Université de Paris) an annual workshop “Cultural Production in the 19th Century” held at the Université de Paris (2014 to the present).

Co-organized the International Colloquium “Gustave Kahn (1859-1936): Écrivain symboliste et critique d’art” at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme in Paris.  November 22-23, 2006.

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