Dr Thibaut Maus de Rolley

British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow

BA (Sorbonne), MA (Paris 8/Sorbonne), ‘Agrégation’ (ENS Lyon), Doctorate (Sorbonne)

Oriel College
Oxford
OX1 4EW
thibaut.mausderolley@oriel.ox.ac.uk

I came to Oriel College in October 2010, having previously taught in Montreal (Univ. of Montreal, 2001-02), Paris (Sorbonne, 2003-07) and Oxford (Worcester College, 2007-10). Here at Oriel, I teach literature courses within my specialist area (Papers VII and X), as well as parts of the Prelims’ syllabus.

My research interests span the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, having mainly to do with the interactions between literature and knowledge in French and European culture. My doctoral thesis (a book version of which is forthcoming from Droz in 2011 under the title Élévations: l'écriture du voyage aérien à la Renaissance), traces an interdisciplinary 'pre-history' of fictional flying in French and European Renaissance literature, from Ariosto's Orlando furioso (1516-32) to Kepler's Somnium (1609-34), at the cross-roads between narrative fiction (epic poetry, chivalric romance, satire) and learned discourses (in particular cosmography, astronomy and demonology).

As a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, I am now working on a book on the conceptions and representations of space in early modern demonology from 1560 to 1660, the period in which both the so-called 'witch craze' and the publication of theoretical treatises on the devil were at their height in Europe. Prior to this project, I have co-edited a collection of scholarly essays on the theme of demonic travel, Voyager avec le diable (PUPS, 2008).

Further details can be found on the French sub-faculty website: http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/rolley.