Lauren Pinzka photo

Lauren Pinzka

Senior Lecturer

Nineteenth-century French literature, gender studies,  myth and memory in modern France, the representation of Paris in French and American literature, psychoanalytic criticism.

Lauren Pinzka specializes in the nineteenth-century French novel, with a particular focus on cultural history and gender studies.  Initially, she dedicated her research to psychoanalytic criticism and gender studies but has subsequently chosen to return to her undergraduate passion for history.  She is particularly interested in  questions of myth and historical memory. After teaching at Oberlin and Connecticut Colleges, she joined the French department in 1992. She has dedicated much of her time to the field of pedagogy, exploring effective methods for teaching fiction, as well as designing language and introductory literature courses. She is currently revising an article on the 1857 trials of Gustave Flaubert and Charles Baudelaire. 

  • FREN 1600 Advanced Conversation Through Culture, Film, and Media 
  • FREN 1700 Introduction to Literatures in French

“Teaching Historical Memory and Myth in Indiana,” in upcoming Approaches to Teaching “Indiana.” Ed. David Powell and Pratima Prasad.  New York: MLA.

“Olivier, Armance, and the Unspeakable.”  Altered Narratives.  Ed. Servanne Woodward.  Vol. 1. Eighteenth Century French World Center.  London, Ontario: Mestengo Press, 1997.

“A Psychoanalytical Approach to Madame Bovary,” in Approaches to Teaching “Madame Bovary.”  Ed. Laurence Porter and Eugene Gray.  New York: MLA, 1995.

“Unmasking Indiana: George Sand and the French Revolution(s),” in Literate French Women and the 1789 Revolution.  Ed. Catherine Montfort.  Birmingham, ALA: Summa Publications, 1995.

Douthwaite, Julia, Antoinette Sol, and Catriona Seth, editors. “Teaching the French Revolution as Myth and Memory.” Teaching Representations of the French Revolution. Modern Language Association of America, 2019.

Unpublished:

“A Review of Introductory French Programs,”  2020

“A Review of Introductory French Literature Courses,” May 2017.

Contact Info

lauren.pinzka@yale.edu

Humanities Quadrangle
320 York St.
Room 379

PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993 
MA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978
AB, Indiana University-Bloomington, 1976