Russell Williams
@rwilliamsparis.bsky.social
Associate Prof of Comparative Literature and English, The American University of Paris; French Editor, The Times Literary Supplement. Thinking about French Weird.
Reposted by Russell Williams
And very delighted to be there! Subscribers can read the full piece, but as with practically all Wittkop's writing, don't say we didn't warn you ...
"Slightly deaf, she leans in and out, and pivots to her fellow interviewees with ferocious energy, enthusiasm and, at times, disdain"
Delighted to have @louiserl.bsky.social on Gabrielle Wittkop in the new issue of @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/l...
Delighted to have @louiserl.bsky.social on Gabrielle Wittkop in the new issue of @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/l...
Necrophilia, poisoning and murder: a transgressive French novelist
We are on the set of Bouillon de Culture, a late-night cultural chat show hosted on French TV by the public intellectual Bernard Pivot, genial and
www.the-tls.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:44 PM
And very delighted to be there! Subscribers can read the full piece, but as with practically all Wittkop's writing, don't say we didn't warn you ...
Reposted by Russell Williams
Boualem Sansal gracié : l’écrivain a quitté l’Algérie et est «en route» pour l’Allemagne
Lire ⬇️
Lire ⬇️
Boualem Sansal gracié : l’écrivain a quitté l’Algérie et est «en route» pour l’Allemagne
www.liberation.fr
November 12, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Boualem Sansal gracié : l’écrivain a quitté l’Algérie et est «en route» pour l’Allemagne
Lire ⬇️
Lire ⬇️
"Slightly deaf, she leans in and out, and pivots to her fellow interviewees with ferocious energy, enthusiasm and, at times, disdain"
Delighted to have @louiserl.bsky.social on Gabrielle Wittkop in the new issue of @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/l...
Delighted to have @louiserl.bsky.social on Gabrielle Wittkop in the new issue of @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/l...
Necrophilia, poisoning and murder: a transgressive French novelist
We are on the set of Bouillon de Culture, a late-night cultural chat show hosted on French TV by the public intellectual Bernard Pivot, genial and
www.the-tls.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
"Slightly deaf, she leans in and out, and pivots to her fellow interviewees with ferocious energy, enthusiasm and, at times, disdain"
Delighted to have @louiserl.bsky.social on Gabrielle Wittkop in the new issue of @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/l...
Delighted to have @louiserl.bsky.social on Gabrielle Wittkop in the new issue of @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/l...
Looking forward to presenting virtually at the
@hauntedfutures.bsky.social
conference this week.
Just recorded my presentation on Hellier and Broken Veil.
Might make it available after, will see how I feel.
@hauntedfutures.bsky.social
conference this week.
Just recorded my presentation on Hellier and Broken Veil.
Might make it available after, will see how I feel.
November 11, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Looking forward to presenting virtually at the
@hauntedfutures.bsky.social
conference this week.
Just recorded my presentation on Hellier and Broken Veil.
Might make it available after, will see how I feel.
@hauntedfutures.bsky.social
conference this week.
Just recorded my presentation on Hellier and Broken Veil.
Might make it available after, will see how I feel.
Reposted by Russell Williams
The US-China confrontation; beliefs vs facts; Tennyson, science and catastrophe; Iris Murdoch’s poetry; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein; a history of shamanism – and much more.
The new TLS is out now: www.the-tls.com/issues/curr...
The new TLS is out now: www.the-tls.com/issues/curr...
October 30, 2025 at 4:32 PM
The US-China confrontation; beliefs vs facts; Tennyson, science and catastrophe; Iris Murdoch’s poetry; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein; a history of shamanism – and much more.
The new TLS is out now: www.the-tls.com/issues/curr...
The new TLS is out now: www.the-tls.com/issues/curr...
Ah, the cold brutality with which colleagues decline beautifully-worded Outlook invitations to the bookish event you have organised
September 19, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Ah, the cold brutality with which colleagues decline beautifully-worded Outlook invitations to the bookish event you have organised
"In the world of Parisian publishing, rumours – even legends – emerge around certain books that help to shape their success. Adèle Yon has written one such book"
Marie Darrieussecq on Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth in the new
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/f...
Marie Darrieussecq on Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth in the new
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/f...
The violence of the past
In the dense world of Parisian publishing, rumours – even legends – emerge around certain books that can help to shape their success. Adèle Yon has
www.the-tls.com
September 17, 2025 at 3:56 PM
"In the world of Parisian publishing, rumours – even legends – emerge around certain books that help to shape their success. Adèle Yon has written one such book"
Marie Darrieussecq on Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth in the new
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/f...
Marie Darrieussecq on Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth in the new
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/literature/f...
@stuartmaconie.bsky.social alas, it seems that Madonna never actually was part of Patrick Hernandez’s dance troupe, but they did share a flat!
www.parismatch.com/People/Patri...
www.parismatch.com/People/Patri...
Patrick Hernandez : ‘"Je fais passer son premier casting à… Madonna !"
Il y a quarante ans exactement sortait mon tube « Born to Be Alive ». La même année, je rencontre Madonna avant qu’elle devienne célèbre.
www.parismatch.com
September 13, 2025 at 5:57 PM
@stuartmaconie.bsky.social alas, it seems that Madonna never actually was part of Patrick Hernandez’s dance troupe, but they did share a flat!
www.parismatch.com/People/Patri...
www.parismatch.com/People/Patri...
Reposted by Russell Williams
September 4, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Russell Williams
'Rich, readable... Jones is a compelling tour guide through time' Russell Williams in the TLS on Colin Jones's The Shortest History of France. Out now in hardback. @thetls.bsky.social @rwilliamsparis.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
History of the Hexagon
At a moment when many are speculating about the future of North American hegemony, Emmanuel Macron continues to strive at positioning France as an
www.the-tls.com
September 4, 2025 at 3:14 PM
'Rich, readable... Jones is a compelling tour guide through time' Russell Williams in the TLS on Colin Jones's The Shortest History of France. Out now in hardback. @thetls.bsky.social @rwilliamsparis.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
Reposted by Russell Williams
'More than one visitor will be caught off-guard by “Ballet des pauvres”, an assortment of clothes, tin trays and metal chains suspended from the ceiling, suddenly jerking into action.'
Russell Williams on playing outside
Russell Williams on playing outside
Playing outside
www.the-tls.com
August 21, 2025 at 5:06 AM
'More than one visitor will be caught off-guard by “Ballet des pauvres”, an assortment of clothes, tin trays and metal chains suspended from the ceiling, suddenly jerking into action.'
Russell Williams on playing outside
Russell Williams on playing outside
I wrote about Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and Pontus Hulten at the Grand Palais in this week's - the last before relaunch as a fortnightly -
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/visual-...
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/visual-...
Playing outside
This exhibition traces the story of three friends. The Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely was an innovator in kinetic art: his noisy machines alarmed and delighted the Paris art scene of the 1950s and 60s. ...
www.the-tls.com
August 20, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I wrote about Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and Pontus Hulten at the Grand Palais in this week's - the last before relaunch as a fortnightly -
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/visual-...
@thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/visual-...
Reposted by Russell Williams
💡 More than a French fry – Le Dictionnaire Roland Barthes dans The Times Literary Supplement ! merci à Neil Badmington pour cet article éclairant et d’avoir mis en avant ce projet colossal porté par Claude Coste aux éditions @honorechampion.bsky.social
#rolandbarthes #frenchtheory
#rolandbarthes #frenchtheory
July 24, 2025 at 7:25 AM
💡 More than a French fry – Le Dictionnaire Roland Barthes dans The Times Literary Supplement ! merci à Neil Badmington pour cet article éclairant et d’avoir mis en avant ce projet colossal porté par Claude Coste aux éditions @honorechampion.bsky.social
#rolandbarthes #frenchtheory
#rolandbarthes #frenchtheory
Reposted by Russell Williams
CFP: The Group of the Rue Saint-Benoît: Rethinking Intellectual Practice - Paris, 9 January 2026
atoposophie.wordpress.com/2025/03/19/t...
atoposophie.wordpress.com/2025/03/19/t...
“The Group of the Rue Saint-Benoît” (Call for Papers)
[version française après la version anglaise] The Group of the Rue Saint-Benoît: Rethinking Intellectual Practice Call for Papers – Deadline Extended 1 September Conference 9 January 2026 9-…
atoposophie.wordpress.com
July 25, 2025 at 5:04 PM
CFP: The Group of the Rue Saint-Benoît: Rethinking Intellectual Practice - Paris, 9 January 2026
atoposophie.wordpress.com/2025/03/19/t...
atoposophie.wordpress.com/2025/03/19/t...
"The Dictionnaire Roland Barthes invites us to consider the relevance of the work it surveys. Its subject has been dead for nearly half a century, the high days of French theory a distant memory"
@barthesstudies.bsky.social (who else?) in the new @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
@barthesstudies.bsky.social (who else?) in the new @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
The global impact of Roland Barthes’s writing
At the height of his fame, Roland Barthes worried that he was turning into “a French fry”. He was anxious about being transformed by others into a fixed
www.the-tls.com
July 23, 2025 at 3:39 PM
"The Dictionnaire Roland Barthes invites us to consider the relevance of the work it surveys. Its subject has been dead for nearly half a century, the high days of French theory a distant memory"
@barthesstudies.bsky.social (who else?) in the new @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
@barthesstudies.bsky.social (who else?) in the new @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
Reposted by Russell Williams
.@livunipress.bsky.social have a 50% off summer sale on until 20 July. Using code 27SUMMER means you can order my book Humour in Contemporary France for £12.49 plus P&P. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
Humour in Contemporary France | Home
Controversy, Consensus and Contradictions
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
July 15, 2025 at 9:09 AM
.@livunipress.bsky.social have a 50% off summer sale on until 20 July. Using code 27SUMMER means you can order my book Humour in Contemporary France for £12.49 plus P&P. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
"What do Wedgwood tea sets, plumed tricorn hats and French revolutionary paper money have in common?"
Biancamaria Fontana on The Revolutionary Self by Lynn Hunt in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
Biancamaria Fontana on The Revolutionary Self by Lynn Hunt in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
The mythology of the ‘career open to talents’
What do Wedgwood tea sets, plumed tricorn hats and French revolutionary paper money have in common? According to Lynn Hunt, author of The Revolutionary
www.the-tls.com
July 10, 2025 at 7:59 AM
"What do Wedgwood tea sets, plumed tricorn hats and French revolutionary paper money have in common?"
Biancamaria Fontana on The Revolutionary Self by Lynn Hunt in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
Biancamaria Fontana on The Revolutionary Self by Lynn Hunt in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/philosophy/h...
"Once, left-wing academics assumed that they were looking to the future, which they usually regarded with optimism. Now there is a melancholy tone"
Richard Vinen on Didier Eribon and Nicolas Renahy in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/twen...
Richard Vinen on Didier Eribon and Nicolas Renahy in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/twen...
Unmaking of the working class
University sociology departments grew fast in the 1960s and 1970s. From Nanterre to Essex, those who lectured to the rebellious products of the postwar
www.the-tls.com
July 10, 2025 at 7:56 AM
"Once, left-wing academics assumed that they were looking to the future, which they usually regarded with optimism. Now there is a melancholy tone"
Richard Vinen on Didier Eribon and Nicolas Renahy in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/twen...
Richard Vinen on Didier Eribon and Nicolas Renahy in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/twen...
"A model of archival research and historical analysis of the things that can be known"
Christopher L Miller on Miranda Spieler's Slaves in Paris in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/mode...
Christopher L Miller on Miranda Spieler's Slaves in Paris in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/mode...
The illusion of freedom
It is chilling to read of people being seized, kidnapped and, under the cover of law, removed for easy disposal, even when the cases at hand took place
www.the-tls.com
July 10, 2025 at 7:55 AM
"A model of archival research and historical analysis of the things that can be known"
Christopher L Miller on Miranda Spieler's Slaves in Paris in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/mode...
Christopher L Miller on Miranda Spieler's Slaves in Paris in this week's @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/history/mode...
Reposted by Russell Williams
The Birthplace of Arthur Machen: Wales’s Master of the Macabre
A quick pilgrimage to the Caerleon home of Wales’s greatest horror writer and high priest of the uncanny. Pretty in pink — I’m sure the fair folk approve… and are watching.
A quick pilgrimage to the Caerleon home of Wales’s greatest horror writer and high priest of the uncanny. Pretty in pink — I’m sure the fair folk approve… and are watching.
July 4, 2025 at 12:33 PM
The Birthplace of Arthur Machen: Wales’s Master of the Macabre
A quick pilgrimage to the Caerleon home of Wales’s greatest horror writer and high priest of the uncanny. Pretty in pink — I’m sure the fair folk approve… and are watching.
A quick pilgrimage to the Caerleon home of Wales’s greatest horror writer and high priest of the uncanny. Pretty in pink — I’m sure the fair folk approve… and are watching.
Reposted by Russell Williams
Black Sabbath are the originators. Many thanks to Mary Anne Hobbs for giving me a platform to talk about metal, art, race, disability & Birmingham…
on-air with me this week:
as Black Sabbath descend on Villa Park for the final time, we welcome @jahduran.bsky.social co-founder of @thequietus.com to talk about Sabbath as an art form.
Sunday 6-8pm BBC 6 Music
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
as Black Sabbath descend on Villa Park for the final time, we welcome @jahduran.bsky.social co-founder of @thequietus.com to talk about Sabbath as an art form.
Sunday 6-8pm BBC 6 Music
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
July 4, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Black Sabbath are the originators. Many thanks to Mary Anne Hobbs for giving me a platform to talk about metal, art, race, disability & Birmingham…
Reposted by Russell Williams
For @thetls.bsky.social this week I wrote about the French romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life and the long shadow of Richard Curtis.
July 3, 2025 at 5:02 PM
For @thetls.bsky.social this week I wrote about the French romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life and the long shadow of Richard Curtis.
Note to relevant people: I would happily receive more invitations to star-studded galas
June 26, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Note to relevant people: I would happily receive more invitations to star-studded galas
Reposted by Russell Williams
I wrote about Erik Satie, Ian Penman and Les Dawson in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...
Furniture music
Erik Satie died in Saint-Joseph hospital in Paris on July 1, 1925. In the days before his death, friends including the composer Darius Milhaud and the painter Georges Braque had rallied round to his b...
www.the-tls.com
June 25, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I wrote about Erik Satie, Ian Penman and Les Dawson in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...
I wrote about Erik Satie, Ian Penman and Les Dawson in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...
Furniture music
Erik Satie died in Saint-Joseph hospital in Paris on July 1, 1925. In the days before his death, friends including the composer Darius Milhaud and the painter Georges Braque had rallied round to his b...
www.the-tls.com
June 25, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I wrote about Erik Satie, Ian Penman and Les Dawson in this week’s @thetls.bsky.social
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...
www.the-tls.com/arts/music/e...