Romance Studies participates in a longstanding tradition at Cornell of scholarship that bridges literary theory and criticism with philosophical approaches to literature, language and culture. At the heart of this intersection are diverse methods –ranging from critical theory and psychoanalysis to the philosophy of language and deconstruction, from poetics and intermediality to post-structuralism– for interrogating the social, ideological and historical structures at play in the production of literary works as well as investigating the relation between meaning production, critical analysis and subject formation.
This field of inquiry is concerned principally with questions related to practices of reading and critical modes of interpretation that allow for new insights into power, subjectivities, race, gender, the politics of representation, visuality, memory, the writing of history, and new ways to explore the relation between technological and literary innovation. Through a vast array of methodological and theoretical approaches, scholars working in this area seek a deeper understanding of the ways in which literature, in relation to different concepts, registers, genres, and media, makes meaning possible.
Related people
Professor Emeritus
Professor of Italian Studies
Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies
Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences Professor of French, Francophone & Comparative Literature
Professor Emerita of Hispanic Studies
Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Romance Studies
Professor of Romance Studies
Associate Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature
Professor of French
Professor
Professor of Romance Studies, Kappa Alpha Professor in Literature
Professor of Romance Studies, Kappa Alpha Professor in Literature
Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Latin American Literature
Professor of Spanish and Medieval Studies
Professor Emerita
Susan and Barton Winokur Professor in the Humanities
Associate Professor of French Literature