A photo of Malina Stefanovska

Malina Stefanovska

LECTURER EMERITA

E-mail: stefanov@humnet.ucla.edu Fields of interest: 17th and 18th-Century Literature and Culture; Autobiographical Expression; Graphic Novels

Originating from a multilingual and multicultural background in ex-Yugoslavia, Malina Stefanovska was educated on three continents: Africa, Europe and America. She holds a B.A. from Grenoble, via Université de Brazzaville, an M.A. from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University. Professor Stefanovska also worked as an interpreter and translator for French, English and Serbian, studied Spanish out of love, and wrote and translated literary texts and poetry in several languages. After completing her doctoral thesis on Saint-Simon, which was published as a book in France, Malina further specialized in memoir authors and autobiographical writings of Early Modern France, as well as their modern forms, from the narrative to the visual, from the fictionalized to “auto-fiction” or journal. She is also a practicing autobiographer and recently completed a manuscript about a Macedonian childhood and family history. Her next project, related to passions and emotions in 17th and 18th century France, will consist in a study of Casanova, written in the form of letters to this author by a reader who admires him.

Education

  • Ph.D., the Johns Hopkins University
  • M.A., the University of Oregon
  • B.A., Grenoble via Université de Brazzaville

Featured Works

Selected Publications

Articles

  • “’Une manière singulière, aisée, agréable et utile d’instruction pour le Roi:’ l’historiographie de Saint-Simon.” French Studies, 46, 4, (1992).
  • “Saint-Simon’s walk through a Gallery of Portraits: Theorizing History in Seventeenth-Century Memoirs.” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, 19, (1992).
  • “Histoire ou historiette: le portrait du prince par Tallemant des Réaux et Saint-Simon.” Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, 77, Paris/Seattle/Tubingen (1993).
  • “Saint-Simon: un moraliste dans le réel.” Dalhousie French Studies, 27 (1994).
  • “Strolling through the Galleries, Hiding in a Cabinet: Clio at the French Absolutist Court.” The Eighteenth Century. Theory and Interpretation, 35, 3 (Autumn 1994).
  • “Le corps politique et ses maladies dans l’imaginaire politique de l’époque de Louis XIV.” Biblio 17. Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, Paris/Seattle/Tübingen (1995).
  • “A Well-staged Coup de théâtre: the Royal Lit de Justice in 1718,” Sub/Stance (Special Issue: Politics on Stage), 80, 2 (1996).
  • “A monumental Triptych: the Parallel of the First Three Bourbon Kings by Saint-Simon,” French Historical Studies, 19: 4 (Fall 1996).
  • “Un voyeux à la cour de Louis XIV: curiosité et écriture dans les Mémoires de Saint-Simon.” Papers on Seventeenth-Century French Literature, 26, 51 (1999).
  • “Démarches et itinéraires de la Fronde: Paris dans les Mémoires du cardinal de Retz;” Papers on Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Biblio17, 131 (2001).
  • “Jean-François-Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz,” entry, Dictionary of literary Biography, vol. 268 (Thompson and Gale, New York/London, 2003).
  • “Biography and Autobiogaphy,” entry, EUROPE 1450-1789: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE EARLY MODERN WORLD, Editor Jonathan Dewald, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), vol. 1.
  • “Saint-Simon,” entry, EUROPE 1450-1789: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE EARLY MODERN WORLD, Editor Jonathan Dewald, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), volume 5.
  • “L’anecdote et le savoir historique dans les Ana et les mémoires,” Papers on Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Paris/Seattle/Tübingen (2003), pp. 211-220.
  • “The Closest Bond: Conspiracy in Seventeenth-Century French Tragedy,” in Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe, from the Waldensians to the French Revolution, ed. B. Coward and J. Swann (England, Ashgate, 2004).
  •  “The Baroque Social Bond in the Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz,” in Culture and Authority in the Baroque, editors M. Ciavolella and P. Coleman (Toronto, Buffalo, London, 2005, University of Toronto Press).
  • “Factions et cabales dans les Mémoires de Retz et de Saint-Simon” Cahiers d’histoire culturelle, n°16, 2005, L’idée d’opposition dans les Mémoires d’Ancien Régime“, Actes publiés et édités par Marie-Paule de Weerdt-Pilorge, Presses universitaires François Rabelais de Tours, UFR Langues et Lettres.
  • « Les mémoires comme réponse au scandale de l’oubli : l’exemple de Retz » in L’expression de l’inoubliable dans les mémoires d’ancien régime (Nantes, Éditions Cécile Defaut, 2005).
  • « La conjuration de Fiesque de Retz, un essai sur le lien politique », Littératures Classiques, # 57, (Paris, Honoré Champion, 2006).
  • “La Monarchie des jésuites: solipsisme et politique” Dix-huitième Siècle, 2005, # 37, pp. 359-381.
  • “Saint-Simon”, “Retz”, entries in Dictionary of Early Modern French Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, Great Britain (2008). French version, revised, in Le Dictionnaire des philosophes Français du XVIIe siècle Acteurs et réseaux du savoir, ed. Luc Foisneau, (Editions Garnier, Paris, 2015).
  • “Factions et cabales dans les Memoires de Retz et de Saint-Simon” L’idée d’opposition dans les Mémoires d’Ancien Régime, Cahiers d’Histoire culturelle (Presses Universitaires François-Rabelais, 2005), 16 : 55-66.
  • “Cardinal De Retz’s Memoirs: Encountering Fortune and Taking Timely Steps”, chapter in Chance, Literature, and Culture in Early Modern France, editors John Lyons, Kathleen Wine, (Ashgate, London, 2009).
  • « Du sociable au cruel : les pratiques de la “raillerie” chez Saint-Simon », in Approches textuelles de Saint-Simon, editor Marc Hersant, Textuel, n. 58, (Presses Universitaires de Paris VII, Paris, 2008), pp. 29-40.
  • “Exemplary or singular: anecdote in historical narrative”  (Sub/Stance, 2009).
  • “Se voir à travers l’autre : Retz juge de Gondi.” Ecrire l’histoire 6, “Morales (2), eds. Cl. Millet and N. Richard, (Marseille, David Gaussen, Fall 2010)
  • « Le mariage du duc de Berry. L’éclat et la souillure » in La Guerre civile des langues, ed. Marc Hersant (Paris, Garnier, 2011), pp. 187-215.
  • « La parole retrouvée ou le portrait saint-simonien du duc de Berry », in Lectures de Saint-Simon. Autour de l’Intrigue du mariage de M. le duc de Berry (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Mayenne, 2011), pp. 89-108.
  • « Sevdah », Civilisations, Revue Internationale d’anthropologie et de sciences humaines, Bruxelles, Universite de Bruxelles, aout 2012, vol. 60, # 2, « Etre ou ne pas être Balkanique ».
  • « La mémoire vive de l’ami (Pontis, Retz, Saint-Simon) » in XVIIe Siècle, janvier 2013, # 258, 1.
  • “The Theatre of Friendship in Early Modern French Memoirs: The Case of Pontis,” Studies in the Renaissance and Reformation (University of Toronto Press, Canada, 2014).
  • “The Fashion Run Seen From The Back Stage: Saint-Simon’s Memoirs of Louis XIV’s Court.” in Fashion And Fashion Prints In The Age Of Louis XIV, Editor Kathryn Norberg (Texas Tech University Press, 2014.
  • “Sensible à l’amitié et très fidèle. Saint-Simon mémorialiste.” in Saint-Simon ou le sens de l’intrigue, sous la direction de Jacques Berchtold et Marc Hersant (Paris, Garnier, 2014).
  • “ ‘Une science dans laquelle l’on ne peut jamais être docteur’ : la faction chez Bacon, Hobbes et Retz”, in « Littérature et politique: faction et dissidences de la Ligue à la Fronde», eds. Stefanovska and Paschoud, Editions Garnier, Paris, 2014.
  • “La circulation des mots d’esprit dans la société française du XVIIe siècle”, Networks, Interconnection, Connectivity. Selected Essays from the 44th North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature Conference, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, May 15-17, 2014, Eds. Ellen R. Welch and Michèle Longino, Biblio 17, vol. 210, 2015, Narr Verlag, Tübingen.
  • “‘Donner un noble sujet de rire à la bonne compagnie’: Histoire de ma vie de Casanova.” Écritures de soi et autorité, J.-P. Castellani ed., (Presses Universitaires Francois Rabelais, Tours, 2016).
  • « Casanova was more than a good lover », Literary Essay.
  • “Casanova man of letters”, in Casanova. The Seduction of Europe, edited by F. Ilchman, Th. Michie, C.D. Dickerson III and E. Bell, MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2017.

Reviews

  • Michael Moriarty, Taste and Ideology in Seventeenth century France, Comparative Literature, winter 1992.
  • Michel Serres, Le contrat Naturel. Sub/Stance, spring 1992.
  • Vincent Kaufman, L’équivoque épistolaire. Comparative Literature, 45:4, Fall 1993.
  • Van Kelly, Pascalian Fictions. Antagonism and Absent Agency in the Wager and Other Pensées. South Central Review, Spring 1995.
  • Vincent Pitts, La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France (1627-1693) in Papers on Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Biblio17, XXIX, 56 (2002), 269-271.
  • Yves Coirault, Saint-Simon, Hiérarchies et mutations. Ecrits sur le kaléidoscope social in Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 59 (2003).
  • Delphine de Garidel, Poétique de Saint-Simon. Cours et détours du récit historique dans les Mémoires, in Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 65 (2006).
  • Christian Jouhaud, Sauver le Grand-Siècle ? Présence et transmission du passé, (H-France Forum, volume 2, Issue 4 (Fall 2007), No. 2, pp. 5-8.)
  • Marc Hersant: Le discours de vérité dans les Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon, PFSCL XXXVIII, 74 (2011), pp. 248-251.
  • Espaces de la controverse au seuil des Lumières” (1680-1715), editors Léonard Burnand and Adrien Paschoud in Seventeenth Century, vol. 26, # 2, October 2011, Manchester University Press, pp. 406-408.
  • Thomas Tikuanoga “Transgressing Boundaries: Worldly Conversation, Politeness and Sociability in Ancien Régime France, 1660-1789),” French Studies, October 2014 (68.4), Oxford University Press.
  • Christophe Blanquie, Saint-Simon ou la politique des Mémoires. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014, H-France Review Vol. 16 (April 2016), No. 45.
  • H-France Review Vol. 16 (April 2016), No. 45, Christophe Blanquie, Saint-Simon ou la politique des Mémoires. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014.

Edited Volumes

  • Space and Self in Early Modern European Cultures, edited by David Warren Sabean and Malina Stefanovska (University of Toronto Press, Canada, 2012).
  • Littérature et politique. Factions et dissidences de la Ligue à la Fronde, Edited by Malina Stefanovska and Adrien Paschoud (Paris, Garnier, 2015).

Courses commonly taught

  • Self and Society in Early Modern France
  • Theatre (from Classical tragedy to modern comedy).
  • Autobiography
  • Contemporary French thinkers
  • Casanova and the Enlightenment
  • Descartes and Pascal
  • Early Modern culture in cinema

Honors and Awards

  • Visiting scholar at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Fontenay-Sint-Cloud,
  • Visiting professor at the Université de Lausanne, and Université de Tours; UCLA Clark professor for 2007-8;
  • Recipient of the ACLS grant; recipient of the FACE (French American Cultural Exchange) Foundation fellowship through the Partner University Fund.

Professional Activities

  • Active member of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (I have served on its executive and its scientific committees in the past).
  • Occasional evaluator for Tenure promotions
  • Occasional referee for scholarly journals (French Historical Studies, French Studies, Signs, Continuum).
  • Member of the Research group on French memoirs of the Old Regime
  • Editorial board, Editions Garnier

Work in Progress

  • Straddling the territory between theorizing and practicing self-writing, “Écritures de soi”, Malina Stefanovska recently completed a manuscript of autobiographical texts titled “Sevdah” (Nostalgia), to be published in French.