Rudy Le Menth茅our

Professor of French and Francophone Studies
Undergraduate Advisor
Rudy Le Menth茅our headshot

Contact

Phone 610-526-5674
Location Old Library 147
On Leave
semester I

Education

Ph.D. Universit茅 de Grenoble

Areas of Focus

French Enlightenment (literature and philosophy), medical humanities

Biography

Rudy Le Menth茅our has studied the polemical battles between Rousseau and the main philosophers of the French Enlightenment. His work also focuses on the rise of hygiene and medical anthropology in the Eighteenth Century. He published (Classiques Garnier, 2012), edited the first modern eugenic treatise, Charles-Augustin Vandermonde鈥檚 (Classiques Garnier, 2015), as well as an anthology on Seventeenth Century French Literature, (Flammarion, 2003). With Prof. Ourida Mostefai, he co-edited the Lettre 脿 D鈥橝lembert, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (艗uvres compl猫tes, vol. IX B, Classiques Garnier, 2024).

Select Publications

  • 鈥淩ousseau鈥檚 Twilight: Graeber and Wengrow鈥檚 Critique of the Second Discourse,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Monde Fran莽ais du Dix-Huiti猫me Si猫cle, vol. 9, issue 1, 2024, 
  • 鈥淟e secret d鈥檜ne pyramide: Diderot, la double doctrine et l鈥贰苍肠测肠濒辞辫茅诲颈别,鈥 Diderot Studies, vol. 37, 2022: 185-208,
  • 鈥淪eul en son royaume: la jouissance souveraine selon Rousseau Cruso茅,鈥 in Thierry Belleguic et Philip Knee (dir.), Le sentiment de l鈥檈xistence. Lectures des R锚veries du promeneur solitaire de Rousseau, Paris, Hermann, 2021, p. 199-218 [initially published in Italian]
  • 鈥淭o Preserve or To Protect? Rousseau鈥檚 Take on Hygiene,鈥 Sens public, 2019,
  • 鈥淟e paradis 脿 port茅e de lance: variations autour du mod猫le spartiate 脿 l鈥櫭e des Lumi猫res,鈥MLN, vol. 133, no. 4, 2018: 914-936,
  • 鈥淩estaurer l鈥櫭e antique: Rousseau, Mably et le mirage polonais,鈥 Dix-huiti猫me si猫cle, 50, 2018: 449鈥469,
  • 鈥淒e la moisson humaine: botanique et perfectibilit茅 dans les Lumi猫res m茅dicales,鈥&苍产蝉辫;TrOPICS, no. 1, Dec. 2013, 
  • 鈥淢elancholy vaporised: self-narration and counter-diagnosis in Rousseau鈥檚 work,鈥 in Medicine and Narration in the 18th Century, ed. Sophie Vasset, Oxford, SVEC (2013:04): 107-123,
  • 鈥淭he Tarantula, the Physician and Rousseau: the Eighteenth-Century Etiology of an Italian Sting,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, vol. 37 (2009), 
  • 鈥淒e la ruche au polype: figures de l鈥檕rganisation sociale,鈥 Dix-huiti猫me si猫cle, no. 41, 2009: 205-221,
  • 鈥淒e l鈥檌ngratitude volontaire: Rousseau, Mirabeau et les paradoxes de l鈥檋ospitalit茅 moderne,鈥 Theatrum historiae, 4, Vydavatelstv铆 Univertzity Pardubice, 2009: 47-58,
  • 鈥淐endrillon: portrait de la jeune fille en vestale,鈥 La grande oreille, no. 33 (Winter 2007): 33-39,
  • 鈥淚nterview with Daniel Clowes/Entretien avec Daniel Clowes,鈥 PLG, no. 37, 2002: 27-37,

Courses Taught

  • FREN 204 Le Si猫cle des Lumi猫res
    An introduction to French Enlightenment, with texts by Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, among others

  • FREN 306 Libertinage et Subversion
    A study of Eighteenth-Century Libertinage through novels by Pr茅vost, Cr茅billon, Laclos, Sade, etc.

  • HLTH 275 Improving Mankind
    A comparative and historical approach to eugenics in different national contexts (UK, US, France, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, etc.).

  • COML 217 Lovesick
    This course explores the different ways love has been compared to a sickness, but also how love relationships are impacted by the experience of disease. Works by Ovid, Burns, Lafayette, Bechdel, Campillo, etc.