Ye Xu

EmailYe.Xurhul.acuk

TW20 0EX

Personal profile

Dr Ye Xu is a scholar of French literature, medical humanities, and body studies. She is currently working on her postdoctoral research project The emergence of sensation: an epistemological, ideological and artistic archaeology in French literature from 1850 to 1900, as a British Academy International Fellow at Royal Holloway. Prior to entering the British academia, she studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where she completed her PhD with a thesis entitled The theme of neurosis in French literature from 1870 to 1900. Her research lies primarily at the interdisciplinary intersections between literature and the sciences, in particular medicine, physiology, psychology and psychiatry, and focuses on the period of Belle Époque in French literature, with a consistent emphasis on questions about bodily sensations, the relationship between body and mind, definitions and representations of pathology, echo of the epistemological paradigm in literature and the arts.

Research interests

My first monograph, Archaeology of neurosis in French literature from 1870 to 1900, was published in 2023 in France. By demonstrating and interpreting medical knowledge on neurosis, literary representations of neurosis, literary criticism mobilising the notion of neurosis as well as the dialogues among these three dimensions, this book sheds light on the intellectual and literary conception of neurosis at the end of the 19th century, and the ways in which the theme of neurosis is used by writers. This work also illustrates the ethical and artistic issues behind writers' treatments of the neurotic motifs; these issues are particularly distinct in neurotic exegesis which imply a norm of literary health, as well as in works and theories related to the literary Decadent movement. This study ends with an analysis of Verlaine's poetry, exploring the poetic and stylistic features on which neurotic exegeses of Verlaine's works may be based.

The PhD work on neurosis led me to discover the collective interest of French writers in the question of bodily sensibility as well as considerable tensions between different thingkings on this subject during the last three decades of the 19th century. Following on from this work, my current research focuses on the place of the sensation in French literature. Literary criticism of this time converged to indicate a literary tendency to underline, enrich, intensify and even idealize and poetize sensory experiences, which they presented as a characteristic novelty in literature. At the same time, this discourse was accompanied by a doxa proclaiming that the sensory irritation is an inevitable result of modern civilisation. These discourses seem to imply that senses are awakening in this age, that they are portrayed in literature in a way that has never been done before. From that, it is difficult not to notice an emergence, even an ascendance of sensation in French literary works and criticism of the second half of the 19th century. This movement is, moreover, highlighted by the dialogues that multiply between different genres of writing (novels, poetry, criticism, journalism etc.).

From this observation stems the question that my research project will answer. By considering the links that closely unite literature with scientific knowledge, ethical ideas, philosophical proposals and artistic trends from 1850 to 1900, we ask a question essential for understanding this period: what constitutes the epistemological, ideological and artistic conditions that allow the development of a tendency towards "sensationism" in literature, as well as the profusion of discourses aimed at revealing, analysing and judging it ?

Contextualizing this phenomenon of the emergence of sensation will allow us to raise our study to the level of the zeitgeist: how did the French literary world of this period get penetrated by an intellectual and artistic paradigm of “sensationism” ? This project will excavate, in abundant representations and discussions of the senses, the impacts of physiological, psychological, medical and sociological knowledge in literature, as well as the repercussions of moral attitudes and metaphysical thoughts in the dialogues between literature and the sciences. This work may even extend to the boundaries of literature and the arts to examine the inspirations that writers found in music and painting to conceive an aesthetic of sensationism in literature.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):