Jonathan Culler, the Class of 1916 Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), received an honorary doctorate from the University of Paris 8 on March 26 for his contributions to literary and theoretical studies and his close ties with French intellectual movements. The ceremony was followed by a round table discussion of Culler’s work by several colleagues, including Philip Lewis, professor emeritus of Romance studies (A&S) and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
“The University of Paris 8 is honored to award an honorary doctorate to Jonathan Culler, a leading American figure in the field of ‘French Theory.’ This title recognizes his considerable contribution to literary and theoretical studies, as well as his close ties with French intellectual movements,” the university said in a citation.
During his distinguished career as a professor at Cornell, from 1977 to retirement in 2020, Culler was one of the main architects of bringing so-called "French thought" to American universities. In particular, Culler was a major source of introduction to Derrida's thought for an English-speaking audience.
“When I arrived at Cornell in 1984, Jonathan Culler was, along with astrophysicist Carl Sagan, one of the two great ‘stars’ of the university,” said Anne Berger, adjunct professor of French literature in the Department of Romance Studies (A&S) and also professor emerita of French literature and gender studies at Paris 8. “A man of the left and a self-proclaimed atheist in a religious country, he actively supported all initiatives aimed at promoting diversity at the university. Finally, while many American intellectual ‘stars’ were beginning to play the academic ‘market’ game and sell themselves to the highest bidder, changing positions and institutions with some frequency, Jonathan remained loyal to Cornell, where he made his mark and influenced the course of literary teaching.”
Culler’s influential books include: “Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of Literature” (1975); “Ferdinand de Saussure” (1976); “The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction” (1981); “On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism,” (1982); “Framing the Sign: Criticism and its Institutions” (1988); and “Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction” (1997), which has been translated into 27 languages. Most recently, Culler published “The Theory of the Lyric” in 2015.
In 2020, Culler was elected to the British Academy. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Culler has also been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from the Guggenheim and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. He has held leadership positions at the American Council of Learned Societies and the New York Council for the Humanities.
At Cornell, Culler directed the Society for the Humanities at Cornell for eight years and served as senior associate dean of Cornell's Faculty of Arts and Sciences for three years.
“It is immensely gratifying to receive this recognition for my work on French literature and French thought from the University of Paris 8, which was founded in the late 1960s as an experimental university where many of the most innovative thinkers whose work I have written about came to teach. It is also a wonderful honor for the University to organize a roundtable where colleagues discuss my work,” said Culler.
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