Ana Oancea
Resources and Links
Biography
Ana Oancea is an Associate Professor of French in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Her specialization is in the literature and culture of 19th century France, with the intersections of science and literature as a primary field. Her research and teaching also draw connections with the cultural production of the 20th century and the contemporary period. Recent publications and courses engage with adaptation and visual studies, particularly relating to French film,聽bande dessin茅e聽and video games.
Dr. Oancea鈥檚 first book,聽Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-si猫cle France聽(U. Toronto Press, 2025) looks at how 19th-century French popular literature constructed a new avatar of scientific progress in the figure of the inventor. It analyzes works of 19th-century anticipation by Jules Verne, Albert Robida, Emile Zola and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam to explain the recurrence of the inventor figure. He 鈥 the character is universally male in these narratives 鈥 is a negative exemplar of national heroism in the Age of Empire, a period when France suffered grave external threats and internal divisions, but the inventor also stands for unbridled creativity. The book argues that the inventor novel is a product of broader French anxieties about scientific progress and international competition. These works critically examine the place of science in fin-de-si猫cle French national identity and seek to alter French understanding of science and technology.聽Dangerous Creations聽also sketches out the transmedia and transnational legacy of the fin-de-si猫cle inventor novel by placing its various iterations in conversation with similarly-themed films, television series, graphic narratives, and video games.
She regularly teaches courses on composition and conversation, visual narratives, French science fiction, French cooking, literature and film, and the representation of French education on film.聽.
Degrees
MA, MPhil, PhD Columbia University
BA University of Virginia
Publications
Book
Dangerous Creations: The Inventor Novel in Fin-de-si猫cle France (forthcoming, U. Toronto Press)
Peer-reviewed Articles
- 鈥淐ontemporary Values Encounter Classic Illustrations in Rebecca Solnit鈥檚 Cinderella Liberator (2019).鈥 Forum for Modern Language Studies 58.4 (2022): 413鈥431.
- 鈥淢ind the Knowledge Gap: Ex Machina鈥檚 Reinterpretation of the Female Android.鈥 Science Fiction Film and Television 13.2 (2020): 221鈥245.
- 鈥淪alammb么 in the Third Degree: From Novel to BD to Video Game.鈥 Etudes francophones 32 (2020): 110-128.
- 鈥淏lack Skin, Black Mask: the Subaltern鈥檚 Quest for Transformation in Jean-Paul Civeyrac鈥檚 Mon Amie Victoria.鈥 French Screen Studies (formerly Studies in French Cinema) 20.1 (2020): 67-86.
- 鈥淟iterature and Vivisection: Reevaluating Emile Zola鈥檚 Interpretation of Claude Bernard.鈥 Neohelicon 45.2 (2018): 671-687.
- 鈥淗eredity Beyond the Rougon-Macquart: The Case of Travail.鈥 French Forum 42.2 (2017): 233-248.
- 鈥淭he Temptation of the Material in Jean Lorrain鈥檚 Fairy Tales.鈥 Dix-Neuf 21.2-3 (2017): 178-191.
- 鈥淰erne at Lyon's F锚te des Lumi猫res: New Media, Old Dystopia.鈥 Romance Notes 57.3 (2017): 497-511.