Romance Studies
The Empty Vessel: Critical Essays on War, Literature, and Memory
This project engages a critical reassessment of Jean de Joinville’s canonical memoir of the Seventh Crusade, best known as the “Vie de Saint Louis” (1309); examines the ways that canon formation and nation-building go hand in hand; and uses close reading to develop a critical dialogue between a constellation of historically far-reaching but thematically-interconnected narrative and ceramic works about war, memory, and loss.