Manet van Montfrans studied Romance languages (French and Spanish) at the University of Amsterdam, where she obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees cum laude.From 1972-1976 she lived with her family in Kenia. From 1982 to 1986 she taught French Literature at COCMA, (Centrale Opleiding Middelbare Akten) in Utrecht, and from 1986 to 2009 she was associate professor of Modern European and French Literature and Culture at the Department of European Studies of the University of Amsterdam. Since 2009 she has worked as a researcher for the chair in Modern European Literature. From 1982 to 1998 she reviewed South-African and French Literature for NRC Handelsblad, and in 1999 obtained her doctorate degree cum laude with a literary dissertation, named Georges Perec. La Contrainte du réel.

As editor-in-chief of the French Library (Publ. G.A.van Oorschot) she supervised some 30 translations of contemporary French fiction.

Since 2002 she has been a board member of the Marcel Proust Society, coeditor of the bi-annual bilingual journal Marcel Proust aujourd’hui and of the Marcel Proust Bulletin. In addition, she was president and is now member of the board of SNRU (Stichting van Romanisten aan Nederlandse Universiteiten), the Foundation of Romanists at Dutch Universities.

Links:

• Marcel Proust Vereniging; www.marcelproust.n; www.facebook.com/marcelproustvereniging
• Platform Frans
• Singel Uitgeverijen
• http://www.brill.com/about/imprints/brill-rodopiRodopi/Brill
• http://www.vanoorschot.nl

Research interests

Manet van Montfrans has specialized in the work of Georges Perec – her doctorate dissertation dealt with autobiography and the constraint of form in the prose of Perec, while the focus of her present research is on other aspects of his work such as the intertextual dimension (Barthes, Calvino, Cayrol, Proust) and the part played by topography and space. Her publications on Patrick Modiano follow naturally from her Perec research since the two writers are thematically related.

French literature after 1980 is another area of special interest, and more particularly the so called ‘récits de filiation’ with their representation of the disappearance of traditional communities from the French countryside and the former industrial areas, largely as a result of demographic and technological developments after World Wars I and II (Bergounioux, Bon, Ferrari, Jourde, Lafon, Michon and Rouaud). A third area of research is the reflection on the wars of decolonization of the 50s and the 60s by writers such as Patrick Deville, Jérôme Ferrari  et Laurent Mauvignier.

Current research projects:

• Film and Literature in the novels of Patrick Modiano
• Pierre Michon:1)  Comité scientifique colloquium ‘Des arts visuels à l’écriture romanesque dans l’œuvre de Pierre Michon’,  Université Babeş-Bolyai de Cluj-Napoca, 26-28 mei 2016, Cluj Napoca Roumanie. 2) Editor translation of Corps du roi of Pierre Michon: Koningslichamen (transl. Rokus Hofstede)  (Publ. G.A. van Oorschot).
• Georges Perec and the City. Lectures et atelier d’écriture au Design Academy Eindhoven (Master, project ‘Observing the City’), February/March 2016.
• ‘Hollandsche Schouwburg: Lieu mémorial’, contribution à l’ Encyclopédie critique des mots de la mémoire et du témoignage, dir. par Philippe Mesnard (CELIS-UBP Clermont Ferrand) et Luba Jurgenson (Eur’ORBEM / Paris IV – CRAL.EHESS)
• ‘Forgotten literature’, about Françoise Frenkel, Rien ou poser la tête (article  for the literary Journal Vooys, été 2016).
• ‘Jeux de mots, lieux de mémoire. Sur Parc Sauvage de Jacques  Roubaud’, in Le jeu de mots/Puns, hommage à Sjef Houppermans, à paraitre aux éditions Brill/Rodopi, 2017.
• Lezingencyclus: ‘Spelen met taal. Vormvernieuwing in de moderne Franse literatuur’, 25 november 2016, UBA  Amsterdam.
• Mathematics and Literature, Lecture, Nationale Wiskundedagen 2017.
• Georges Perec: Reading the City.  Lezingen MA-opleiding Design Academy Eindhoven (project ‘Reading the City’,  februari/maart 2017).M
• Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui,  Proust et le rire (red.) , Brill/Rodopi, 2020, 221 p.
•  Bespreking: Luc Fraisse, Philippe Blay, éds., Marcel Proust et Reynaldo Hahn. Une création à quatre mains’, Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 16, 2020,  200-205.Hoofdstuk ‘Vie de Paula Modersohn Becker by Marie Darrieussecq: between Portrait and Selfportrait’.  Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives, 19th-21st centuries,  Palgrave/Mac Millan, October 2020, 203-218.
• Bespreking Raoul Delemazure, ‘ La vie dans les mots des autres,  Le geste intertextuel dans l’oeuvre de Georges Perec’, Relief, vol. 14, no 1, zomer 202
• Lezing Design Academy Eindhoven, Georges Perec. Uncovering the Infraordinary, 22 september 2020.
• Bespreking: Nicolaas van der Toorn, Le Jeu de l’ambiguïté et du mot. Ambiguïté intentionnelle et Jeu de mots chez Apollinaire, Prévert, Tournier et Beckett (Brill/Rodopi), 2020, Relief, vol. 14, no 2, winter 2020
• Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 16.  ‘Proust et le rire’  (éd.), Leyde, Brill, 2020, 221 p.
• Bespreking: Ph. Blay, J.-Chr. Branger et Luc Fraisse, Marcel Proust et Reynaldo Hahn. Une création à quatre mains, Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 16, ‘Proust et le rire’, Leyde, Brill, 2020, 200-205.
• Bespreking : Bulletin d’informations proustiennes, no 48, Paris Item, 2018, in Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 16, ‘Proust et le rire’, Leyde, Brill, 2020, 217-221.
•  Bespreking ‘Proust in Venetië: Wankele stap op onzekere grond’, De Nederlandse Boekengids, april-mei 2021#2, 31-33
• Artikel ‘Filiations  perecquiennes néerlandaises. Rudy Kousbroek et Georges Perec : affinités électives’, Cahiers Georges Perec, no 14, Le Castor Astral/Les Venterniers , 2021, 353-365.
• ‘Verdier: un lieu, un projet, un parcours’. Entretien avec Colette Olive, éditrice de Verdier, Relief volume 15 (1), zomer 2021.
• Redactie: Bulletin Marcel Proust Vereniging nr 10, november 2021.
• Bespreking: ‘Soixante-quinze feuillets: de kiemcellen van de Recherche’, Bulletin Marcel Proust Vereniging nr 10, 2021, 51-57.
• Lezing: Over 204, rue Saint-Maur Paris Xe. autobiographie d’un immeuble, van Ruth Zylberman, Zutphen, Alliance française, 31 maart 2022.
• Redactie: Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 17, ‘Proust et la musique’ , Leyde, Brill, november 2022.
• Bespreking : Bulletin d’informations proustiennes, no 50, Paris Item, 2020, in Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 17, ‘Proust et la musique’, Leyde, Brill, november 2022, 229-234. Artikel: Reynaldo Hahn en sourdine. Echos d’Esther dans la Recherche, Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 17, ‘Proust et la musique’, Leyde, Brill, november 2022, 3-20.
• Bespreking : Edward Bizub, Faux pas sur les pavés. Proust controversé suivi de  Beckett et Quignard à contrepied, Classiques Garnier, 2020,  in Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, no 17, ‘Proust et la musique’, Leyde, Brill, november 2022,  206-215.
• Lezing Illustere School Amsterdam (14 oktober 2022) en Studium generale Leiden (3 november 2022): ‘Het bijbelverhaal Esther in de Recherche’.
• Signalementen. ‘Rentrée littéraire herfst 2022’. Met Marjolein Corjanus,  De Nederlandse Boekengids,  2022#6,  november 2022.
• Bespreking: ‘Lieux van Perec. Geheugenoefeningen van een stadswandelaar’, De Nederlandse Boekengids, nr 6,  november 2022.
• ‘De Parijse plaatsen van Georges Perec’, gesprek met Annelies Schulte Nordholt, Amsterdam, Pintohuis, 25 november 2022.
• Lezing Alliance française Zutphen: Hélène Gaudy, Un monde sans rivage, 30 maart 2023.