Warren Motte

Biography

Warren Motte received an A.B. in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, a Maîtrise in Anglo-American Literature from the Université de Bordeaux, and an A.M. and Ph.D. in French Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Professor of French and Comparative Literature, he specializes in contemporary writing, with particular focus upon experimentalist works that put accepted notions of literary form into question. He is the author of The Poetics of Experiment: A Study of the Work of Georges Perec (1984), Questioning Edmond Jabès (1990), Playtexts: Ludics in Contemporary Literature (1995), Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature (1999), Fables of the Novel: French Fiction Since 1990 (2003), Fiction Now: The French Novel in the Twenty-First Century (2008), Mirror Gazing (2014), French Fiction Today (2017), Pour une littérature critique (2021), and the translator and editor of Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature (1986; rev. ed. 1998, rpt. 2007). His most recent book is Reading Contemporary French Literature (2022). He has received awards for teaching, for service, and for scholarship. In 2015, he was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques. In 2016, he was named College Professor of Distinction. In 2018, he was named Distinguished Professor.

Publications

Books

• The Poetics of Experiment: A Study of the Work of Georges Perec (Lexington: French Forum Monographs, 1984)
• Questioning Edmond Jabès (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990)
• Playtexts: Ludics in Contemporary Literature (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995)
• Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999)
• Fables of the Novel: French Fiction Since 1990 (Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press, 2003)
• Fiction Now: The French Novel in the Twenty-First Century (Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press, 2008)
• Mirror Gazing (Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press, 2014)
• French Fiction Today (Victoria: Dalkey Archive Press, 2017)
• Pour une littérature critique (Lincoln: Zea Books, 2021)
• Reading Contemporary French Literature (Lincoln: Zea Books, 2022)

Edited Volumes

• Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986, revised edition: Normal: Dalkey Archive Press, 1998, rpt. 2007)
• Literary Ludics (special issue of L’Esprit Créateur, 31.4, 1991)
• Alteratives (Lexington: French Forum Monographs, 1993, with Gerald Prince)
• Jacques Jouet (special issue of SubStance, 96, 2001)
• Pereckonings: Reading Georges Perec (special issue of Yale French Studies, 105, 2004, with Jean-Jacques Poucel)
• The French Novel Now (special issue of SubStance, 111, 2006)
• The Editions P.O.L (special issue of Review of Contemporary Fiction, 30.3, 2010)
• Marie NDiaye’s Worlds/Mondes de Marie NDiaye (special issue of L’Esprit Créateur, 53.2, 2013, with Lydie Moudileno)
• Christine Montalbetti (special issue of Review of Contemporary Fiction, 35.1, 2015)
• Experimental Writing (special issue of American Book Review, 37.5, 2016, with Jeffrey Di Leo)
• Experimental Literature: A Collection of Statements (Aurora: JEF Books, 2018, with Jeffrey Di Leo)
• Lydie Salvayre, maintenant même (Lincoln: Zea Books, 2021)

Research Interests

• Contemporary French Literature
• Comparative Literature
• Theory of Literature
• Literary Experimentalism