John McKeane

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+44 (0) 118 378 7320
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Associate Professor
- French Programme Director
- Research Division Lead (Modern Languages and Linguistics)
- Membership Secretary (Society for French Studies)
Office
Miller G16Building location
Miller BuildingAreas of interest
My research is broadly based in French studies. My main area of expertise is in literary theory (deconstruction, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis) and continental philosophy (aesthetics, phenomenology). I also have interests in translation studies, which emerge from my extensive practice as a translator. Lastly, I am developing a project on education, in France and comparatively, and in this setting have published an article on the baccalaureate.
My D.Phil. (2011) looked at fragmentation and dialogue in the work of Maurice Blanchot, on whom I have published numerous articles. I am the co-editor of the collective volume Blanchot romantique (2010), and the translator of Christophe Bident’s ambitious 632-page Maurice Blanchot: a Critical Biography (2018).
Working on Blanchot and the Romantics led me to a thinker who also studied these figures, Lacoue-Labarthe. I published Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: (Un)timely Meditations (2015) and am the author of numerous other pieces on this philosopher, poet, translator, and playwright. I have also published on Lacoue-Labarthe’s longtime collaborator Jean-Luc Nancy, and am the translator of various works on and by him, notably Adoration: the Deconstruction of Christianity, II (2013).
Lacoue-Labarthe dedicated much of his thinking to Greek tragedy, and ancient thought more generally has allowed some useful bypassing of the institutional barriers between theory and philosophy. I have published in this area on Lacoue-Labarthe, but also on Roland Barthes and Barbara Cassin.
In 2021 I co-edited a special issue of the journal Paragraph on Sarah Kofman and the Relief of Philosophy (2021). I am currently taking my interest in Kofman further by working on my second monograph, Sarah Kofman and Ancient Thought: Learning to Live at Last. This is under contract with OUP, and will examine Kofman’s readings of ancient thought via Nietzsche, as well as her interactions with her close collaborators Derrida, Nancy, and Lacoue-Labarthe.
Teaching
I teach a variety of French language and translation modules, as well as French and comparative cultural modules. I am also convenor of the following modules:
- ML1EN1COMP ‘What is Comparative Literature?
- FR2HTF 'How to Think in French'
- FR3PM ‘French Popular Music and Society’
Background
I graduated with a BA (first class), M.St., and D.Phil from the University of Oxford. I remained at Oxford for a JRF and various lectureships, also holding positions at Cardiff and Warwick before coming to Reading. Prizes I have won include the Junior Paget Toynbee Prize for Dante Studies and the Society for French Studies Prize Fellowship, and I was AHRC/ESRC visiting fellow at the Library of Congress.
Selected publications
Details of publications not listed below (translations, reviews, and others) are available at:
Publications
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McKeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2023) Bonsai Blanchot (Orpheus and Eurydice). First to Knock , 1 (3). pp. 21-27.
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McKeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2023) Pedagogy of the philosophy dissertation in France: paths to freedom, or Thèse-Antithèse-Foutaise?. Modern and Contemporary France ISSN: 1469-9869 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2164566
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2023) Art (and its deliverance). Understanding Nancy, Understanding Modernism. Understanding philosophy, understanding modernism Understanding Nancy, understanding modernism
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2023) Streams of consciousness: river poetry from Heidegger to Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe. In: Toma, C. , (eds.) Understanding Nancy, understanding modernism. Bloomsbury , London. pp. 162-175. ISBN: 9781501370120 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501370151.ch-10
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2023) Absolu – entretien – l’entretien infini. Dictionnaire Maurice Blanchot. Classiques Garnier , Paris.
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2022) Cogitating with Cassin: ontology, sophistics, feminine voice. S: Journal of the Circle for Lacanian Ideology Critique , 13 ISSN: 1874-9062
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2021) Art's passing for Hegel, Lacoue-Labarthe, Nancy. Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities , 26 (1-2). pp. 101-112. ISSN: 1469-2899 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2021.1938401
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X and Bates-Firth, J. , eds. (2021) Sarah Kofman and the relief of philosophy. Paragraph , 44. Edinburgh University Press (1). pp 142. ISBN: 9781474484503
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2021) Sarah Kofman et la mère-nature : de la tragédie à la comédie. Sarah Kofman: philosopher autrement. Hermann , Paris.
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2021) 'Lire "Thomas le solitaire" de Maurice Blanchot', translated by Louise Mai. In: Hoppenot, É. , (eds.) Les Romans de Maurice Blanchot. Roman 20/50 Presses universitaires du Septentrion (70). ISBN: 9782490889013
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2020) Maurice Blanchot, Thomas L’Obscur, Chapter I. French Studies , 41 (153). pp. 1-4. ISSN: 1468-2931 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/FREBUL/KTZ014
- Mckeane, J. (2019) Barthes: rhetoric, style, society. Barthes Studies , 5 ISSN: 2058-3680
- Mckeane, J. (2019) Universalism and the (un)translatable. Translation Studies , 12 (1). pp. 64-77. ISSN: 1751-2921 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2018.1459309
- Mckeane, J. (2018) Amor: Blanchot since 2003. In: Bident, C. and Mckeane, J. , (eds.) Maurice Blanchot: a Critical Biography. Fordham University Press , Bronx, NY. pp. 465-478. ISBN: 9780823281763
- Mckeane, J. (2018) The neuter/the neutral. In: Langlois, C. , (eds.) Understanding Blanchot, Understanding Modernism. Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism Bloomsbury , London. ISBN: 9781501331374
- Mckeane, J. (2017) L’hymne et la communauté, ou Tragédie : suite et fin. Penser la tragédie d’Euripide. L’Esprit créateur , 57 (4). pp. 39-49. ISSN: 1931-0234 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/esp.2017.0040
- Mckeane, J. (2017) Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. Oxford Bibliographies Online | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780190221911-0020
- Mckeane, J. (2016) Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. The Literary Dictionary Company Limited. ISSN: 1747-678X
- Mckeane, J. (2015) The tragedy of Roland Barthes. Barthes Studies , 1 pp. 61-77. ISSN: 2058-3680
- Mckeane, J. (2014) Coupure, mutation, fragmentation. Cahiers Maurice Blanchot , 3 (Autumn). pp. 131-139.
- Mckeane, J. (2014) Change in the archive: Blanchot's 'L'Entretien infini'. Forum for Modern Language Studies , 50 (1). pp. 69-81. ISSN: 1471-6860 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqt027
- Mckeane, J. (2014) Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: (Un)timely meditations. Legenda , Oxford. ISBN: 9781909662421
- Mckeane, J. (2013) Absolutely absolute: Mallarmé, Blanchot, and the absence de livre. Thinking Poetry: Philosophical Approaches to Nineteenth-Century French Poetry. Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke. pp. 97-112. ISBN: 9781137329271
- Mckeane, J. (2013) 'Périmer d’avance': Blanchot, Derrida, and influence. Questions of Influence in Modern French Literature. Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke. pp. 111-125. ISBN: 9781137309150
- Mckeane, J. (2013) Since we have been a dialogue: Blanchot's 'Entretiens'. Oxford Literary Review , 35 (1). pp. 47-64. ISSN: 1757-1634 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3366/olr.2013.0056
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Mckeane, J.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2141-079X (2012) Immense parole qui disait toujours ‘Nous’ ?” : le dernier homme de Maurice Blanchot. Travaux en cours
- Nancy, J. and Mckeane, J. (2012) Adoration (the deconstruction of Christianity, II). Fordham University Press , New York. ISBN: 9780823242948
- Mckeane, J. (2011) Réverbérations: 'Totalité et infini' dans l’écriture de Maurice Blanchot. Europe , 991-992 (Nov-Dec). pp. 117-129.
- Mckeane, J. and Opelz, H. , eds. (2010) Blanchot romantique. Peter Lang , Oxford. ISBN: 9783039119738