Warren F. Motte is a Professor of French and

Comparative Literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

at the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

. His focus is contemporary writing, with an emphasis upon experimental, avant-garde, or other subversive forms of both fiction and poetry. Motte has authored or edited many volumes of literary criticism, including the first book-length study of the renowned French writer

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Hol ...

, an authoritative book on the experimental writing group known as

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...

, and major studies of other writers such as Edmond Jabès,

Marie NDiaye Marie NDiaye (born 4 June 1967) is a French novelist, playwright and screenwriter. She published her first novel, ''Quant au riche avenir'', when she was 17. She won the Prix Goncourt in 2009. Her play ''Papa doit manger'' is the sole play by a ...

, Christine Montalbetti, Antoine Volodine, and Jean Rolin. Motte's recent books include ''Mirror Gazing'' (

Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...

, 2014), a study of over 12,000 mirror scenes in literature, and ''French Fiction Today'' (

, 2017), devoted to the contemporary French novel. In 2015 Motte was named a Knight in the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

by the French Republic. In 2016 he was named a College Professor of Distinction by the University of Colorado Boulder, and in 2018 he was named a Distinguished Professor, the highest honor the University of Colorado awards to its faculty members. He is married to a Frenchwoman with whom he has two sons: Nicholas Motte, a graphic designer, and musician Nathaniel Motte, one half of the American electronic music duo

3OH!3 3OH!3 (pronounced "three oh three") is an American electronic music duo from Boulder, Colorado, made up of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte. They are best known for their single "DONTTRUSTME" from their album ''Want'', which reached number seve ...

Education

Motte received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature as well as an A.M. and Ph.D. in French literature from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. His doctoral dissertation on

was the first book-length study of the now-famous experimental writer. Motte also received a Maîtrise in Anglo-American Literature from the

Université de Bordeaux The University of Bordeaux (French: ''Université de Bordeaux'') is a public university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bordeaux, Dax, Gradignan, Périgueux, Pessac, and T ...

Works

Books *''The Poetics of Experiment: A Study of the Work of Georges Perec'' (Lexington: French Forum Monographs, 1984) *''Questioning Edmond Jabès'' (Lincoln:

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Unive ...

, 1990) *''Playtexts: Ludics in Contemporary Literature'' (Lincoln:

, 1995) *''Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature'' (Lincoln:

, 1999) *''Fables of the Novel: French Fiction Since 1990'' (Champaign:

, 2003) *''Fiction Now: The French Novel in the Twenty-First Century'' (Champaign:

, 2008) *''Mirror Gazing'' (Champaign:

, 2014) *''French Fiction Today'' (Victoria:

, 2017) *''Pour une littérature critique'' (Lincoln: Zea Books, 2021) *''Reading Contemporary French Literature'' (Lincoln: Zea Books, 2022) Edited Volumes *''Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature'' (Lincoln:

, 1986, revised edition: Normal:

, 1998, rpt. 2007) *''Literary Ludics'' (special issue of ''L’Esprit Créateur'', 31.4, 1991) *''Alteratives'' (Lexington: French Forum Monographs, 1993, with

Gerald Prince Gerald J. Prince (born November 7, 1942 in Alexandria, Egypt) is an American academic and literary theoretician. He is Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also affiliated with department of Linguistics and t ...

) *''Jacques Jouet'' (special issue of ''SubStance'', 96, 2001) *''Pereckonings: Reading Georges Perec'' (special issue of ''Yale French Studies'', 105, 2004, with Jean-Jacques Poucel) *''The French Novel Now'' (special issue of ''SubStance'', 111, 2006) *''The Editions P.O.L'' (special issue of '' The Review of Contemporary Fiction'', 30.3, 2010) *''Marie NDiaye’s Worlds/Mondes de Marie NDiaye'' (special issue of ''L’Esprit Créateur'', 53.2, 2013, with Lydie Moudileno) *''Christine Montalbetti'' (Special issue of ''Review of Contemporary Fiction'', 35.1, 2015) *''Experimental Writing'' (special issue of ''American Book Review'', 37.5, 2016, with Jeffrey Di Leo) *''Experimental Literature: A Collection of Statements'' (Aurora: JEF Books, 2018, with Jeffrey Di Leo) *''Lydie Salvayre, maintenant même'' (Lincoln: Zea Books, 2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motte, Warren University of Pennsylvania alumni Living people Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques University of Colorado Boulder faculty Year of birth missing (living people)