Contact Information
Office Hours
Research Areas
Research Interests
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature
Marcel Proust
Genetic criticism, literary theory
Digital humanities
Québec and francophone literatures
Research Description
My current research investigates Marcel Proust’s use of private codes and allusions in his manuscripts, letters, and drawings. I published (with Caroline Szylowicz) the first comprehensive inventory of Proust's drawings to the composer Reynaldo Hahn, documenting over 180 sketches (Bulletin d'informations proustiennes, 2022). Other articles related to Proust's drawings and letters have appared in Textual Practice, Modern Language Notes, Bulletin Marcel Proust, Bulletin d'informations proustiennes, and Nineteenth-Century French Studies.
In 2026, I edited or co-edited 28 newly discovered letters from or to Marcel Proust in Cent lettres inédites. Correspondance retrouvée, 1886-1922 (Honoré Champion / Bibliothèque nationale de France). The book followed a major acquisition by the National Library of France and was reviewed in newspapers including Le Monde, Libération, and Le Temps.
In 2022, for the centenary of Marcel Proust's death, I co-edited "Proust to Other Ends" (with Hannah Freed-Thall), a special issue of L'Esprit Créateur. I also contributed four entries to the exhibition catalogue Proust, la fabrique de l'oeuvre (Gallimard / Bibliothèque nationale de France).
I am Associate Editor of Nineteenth-Century French Studies, as well as a member of the editorial boards of Bulletin d'informations proustiennes and Bulletin Marcel Proust. I am also an affiliate of the Proust research team (Équipe Proust) at ITEM, the Institute for Modern Texts and Manuscripts, Paris (Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes, CNRS/ENS).
In recent years I have given invited lectures and talks in France (Collège de France, École normale supérieure, Fondation Singer-Polignac, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Sorbonne Université), Japan (University of Nagoya), the UK (Cambridge, Oxford), and the US (Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU).
Education
PhD, Harvard University
BA, McGill University (First-Class Honours)
Awards and Honors
Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques, France (2024)
Visiting Professor, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres, France (May-June 2024)
Visiting Professor, Université Grenoble Alpes, France (November 2022)
Conrad Humanities Scholar (2020-2025)
HRI Prize for Research in the Humanities (2020)
Helen Corley Petit Scholar (2019-2020)
Campus Distinguished Promotion Award (2019)
NEH Fellowship (2015-2016)
Courses Taught
- French 211: Introduction to Literary Studies
- French 311: Nineteenth-Century Love Stories
- French 319: Quebec Literature and Film
- French 322: Contemporary Literature in French: The Choix Goncourt US
- French 336: French Cultural History 1789-1968
- French 479: World Literature in French
- French 574: Reading in the Nineteenth-Century French Novel
- French 578: Marcel Proust
- French 579: Reading with Roland Barthes
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, French and Italian
Associate Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Associate Professor, European Union Center
Associate Professor, Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
Highlighted Publications
Victims of the Book: Reading and Masculinity in Fin-de-Siècle France (University of Toronto Press, 2019) shows how the adolescent male reader became a subject of grave social concern in late-nineteenth-century France, and examines literary responses by prominent novelists of the period, including Jules Vallès, Paul Bourget, Maurice Barrès, André Gide, and Marcel Proust.
Listed as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2020 (Choice Reviews).
Praise for Victims of the Book: "intelligent, timely, and groundbreaking" (Choice); "ambitious and thought-provoking ... one of Proulx's great strengths is his ability to tell a historicist, contextualist story through sustained and sensitive close readings" (French Studies); "a thorough, scholarly work grounded in research that extends well beyond even the margins of the canon and pays rewardingly close attention to texts" (French Forum); "a refreshingly successful example of literary analysis that addresses both critical and historiographical concerns" (H-France Review).
Sur les traces de John Ruskin (Honoré Champion, 2026) follows the English critic on his travels through France and Italy, as well as on his spiritual, intellectual, and aesthetic journeys—while also considering the French reception of his work, particularly the creative and critical reception it received from Marcel Proust. Co-edited with Yasué Kato (University of Nagoya, Japan).
"Proust to other Ends," a special issue of L'Esprit Créateur (Fall 2022) proposes counter-readings of À la recherche du temps perdu and its manuscripts, in minor or unexpected modes, toward surprising points of comparison or theoretical reflection. Co-edited with Hannah Freed-Thall (New York University).
Proust and the Arts (Cambridge University Press, 2015; paperback, 2018) brings together expert Proustians and renowned interdisciplinary scholars in a major reconsideration of the novelist's relation to the arts. Co-edited with Christie McDonald (Harvard University).
Praise for Proust and the Arts: "an extraordinarily rich volume" (Acta Fabula); "an exceptional collection ... the book as a whole is an irresistible invitation to reexamine our previous readings of In Search of Lost Time. Everything here encourages us to look at, listen to, smell, touch, and taste Proust's work in a different, more open, and richer way" (Bulletin Marcel Proust).
Recent Publications
André, J., Burkholder, J., Leriche, F., & Proulx, F. (2026). Nature, art, société : autour de Proust, Ruskin, Emerson et Thoreau. Bulletin d’informations proustiennes, 56, 151-164.
Kato, Y., & Proulx, F. (Eds.) (2026). Sur les traces de John Ruskin: Voyages, réception et sources proustiennes. Honore Champion.
Proulx, F., & Kirkegaard, N. (Accepted/In press). Deux cartes de visite à Robert de La Sizeranne retrouvées au Harry Ransom Center. Bulletin Marcel Proust, 76.
Proulx, F. (2026). Les éléments du dessin, de Ruskin à Proust. In Y. Kato, & F. Proulx (Eds.), Sur les traces de John Ruskin. Voyages, réception et sources proustiennes (pp. 309-318). Honore Champion.
Proust, M., André, J. (Ed.), Duval, S. (Ed.), Fau, G. (Ed.), & Proulx, F. (Guest ed.) (2026). Cent lettres inédites. Correspondance retrouvée 1886-1922. Honoré Champion / Bibliothèque nationale de France.