Martin Rueff is a Professor of French Literature at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, as well as an acclaimed poet and translator. A specialist of 18th-century literature, especially Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Professor Rueff has also published extensively on contemporary poetry. His editorial activities include editions of Cesare Pavese’s works, Jean Starobinski’s essays as well as Claude Lévi-Strauss’s and Michel Foucault’s works. He has also translated works by Giorgio Agamben, Carlo Ginzburg, and Italo Calvino into French. His latest publication, Au bout de la langue (On the Tip of One’s Tongue, 2024) focuses on issues of translation. This essay was awarded the Roger Caillois Prize in January 2025. In September 2024, Professor Rueff received the Pavese Prize for poetry.
During his stay in Madison, Professor Rueff will visit French 462/672 and Italian 322, hold office hours with students in French and Italian, and give two public lectures: Wednesday, February 26, 2025 @ 4:00pm, Room 126, Memorial Library: « ‘Mon image, cent fois plus belle que je ne fus jamais, viendra tout à coup te surprendre’ : l’autre, le corps, l’image dans Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse »; and Friday, February 28, 2025 @ 9:45am-10:15am, Room 126, Memorial Library: “How and Why Translation Matters”. This lecture is part of the Burdick-Vary Symposium on “The Work of the Literary Translator. Ethics, Aesthetics, and Politics.”