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Faculty Experts Directory
Thomas DiPiero
Professor of French and of Visual and Cultural Studies, Senior Associate Dean of Humanities
Department of Modern Languages And Cultures
Areas of expertise: Early modern French literature, psychoanalysis, "the novel," race and gender.
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Related Links:
Thomas DiPiero Home Page
Courses
In the News
(April 02, 2009)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
The humanities prepare us for life
WXXI 1370
1370 Connection: U of R Humanities Dean Thomas DiPiero
News Releases
(April 22, 2008)
Inaugural Celebration of the 'Book' at the University of Rochester
University Programs Explore Humanities With Interdisciplinary Works
New Post for the Humanities Created at University of Rochester
Biography
Professor DiPiero is interested in psychoanalysis of race and gender; contemporary European critical thought; development of the novel in France; realism; and French literature. and philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. DiPiero's most recent book, White Men Aren't (Duke University Press), analyzes the significance of psychoanalytic theory's near complete disregard for the question of race. Basing his critique on Greek tragedies, early modern travel literature, and contemporary film and literature, he argues that whiteness and masculinity are forms of hysteria that naturalize as logic and reason positions that are decidedly political. His first book, Dangerous Truths and Criminal Passions: The Evolution of the French Novel, 1569-1791 (Stanford University Press), examines the development of the novel in France, especially as it pertains to the rhetorical strategies known as "realism."