William Compaine Calin
Curriculum Vitae
Born: April 4, 1936, at Newington, Connecticut
Education
- Yale College and Sweet Briar Junior Year in France,
1953-57. A.B. 1957.
Summa cum laude. - Yale Graduate School, 1957-1960. Ph.D. Fall 1960.
Teaching Positions
- Dartmouth College: Instructor 1960-62.
Assistant Professor 1962-63. - Stanford University: Assistant Professor 1964-65.
Associate Professor 1965-70.
Professor 1970-73. - University of Oregon: Professor 1973-88.
Head, Department of Romance Languages 1976-78. - Université de Poitiers: Visiting Professor 1982.
Exchange Professor 1984. - Whitman College: Edward Arnold Visiting Professor 1987.
- University of Florida: Graduate Research Professor 1988--
Florida Foundation Research Professor 1998-2001.
Fields of Specialization
- Medieval Literature (epic, romance, allegory).
- French Poetry (Renaissance to the present).
- Occitan (Provençal), Anglo-Norman, and modern Breton
literature.
- Franco-British Literary Relations, Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Professional Responsibilities and Offices
- International Vice President, Association Internationale d'Etudes Occitanes (1993-2002). International Council (1981-84; 1989-93).
- President, American Branch of the Société Internationale Rencesvals (1973-76).
- Vice President (1985-87) and President (1987-89), International Guillaume de Machaut Society. Executive Board (1996-99).
- Conseil scientifique of the Centre International de l'Ecrit en Langue d'Oc (1996-).
- Advisory Board, International Society for the Study of Medievalism (2004-)
- Executive Council (1978-82), Secretary (1980), and President (1981) of Medieval French Division, Modern Language Association.
- Executive Council (1986-1990; 1998-2002), Secretary (1988, 2000), and President (1989, 2001) of the Provençal and Catalan Division, Modern Language Association.
- Executive Council (1989-95), Secretary (1989-90), and President (1990-91), International Courtly Literature Society Division, South Atlantic Modern Language Association.
- Election to the American Civilization Seminar, University of Florida, 1991.
- Oregon Representative, Institute for Renaissance Interdisciplinary Studies (1981-88).
- Executive Council, Medieval Association of the Pacific
(1975-78); Nominating
Committee (1977-78); Chair, Program Committee (1986-87). - Governing Council, Western Society for French History (1981- 84).
- Member, Oregon Foreign Language Council (1980-88).
- Task Force, Governor's Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies, State of Oregon (1980-82).
- Board of Directors, Association of Oregon Foreign Language Teachers (1977-79, 1983-84).
- Founding Member, Medieval Circle of Stanford.
Editorial Board
- Olifant
- Tenso
- Studies in Medievalism
- Escrituras
- Medievally Speaking
- Guest Editor, special issue of L'Esprit Créateur devoted to "The Future of Old French Studies."
Grants
- Guggenheim Foundation Fellow 1963-64
- ACLS Grant-in-Aid 1963-64
- ACLS Grant-in-Aid 1968
- American Philosophical Society 1970
- Canada Federation in the Humanities Grant 1981
- Fulbright Award 1982
- NEH Fellowship for Independent Study and Research 1984-85
- NEH Summer Institute for Teaching of Literature and History
1985
- Fulbright Senior Research Grant, France and United Kingdom,
1987-88
- American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship 1996-97
Honors
- Lilly Foundation Lecture, Whitman College 1978
- Invitation to Lecture at C.N.R.S. Colloquium, Rheims, 1978
- Lecture at the Collège de France 1980
- Visiting Professor in French Literature, University of
Poitiers 1982
- Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge 1984-85; Life Member
1985--
- Edward Arnold Visiting Professor, Whitman College 1987
- Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, University of Maryland,
April 1988
- Interviewed by "La Quinzaine litteraire" (French literary
magazine) concerning literature in Occitan and the Colloquium at
Castries, 1989
- Distinguished Guest Speaker, University of Miami, November
1991
- Interviewed on French television concerning the Bordeaux
lecture and the Manciet Colloquium, November 1992
- Elected "Sòci dóu Felibrige," Honorary Membership in the
historic Provençal literary society, 1993
- Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in
the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, 1997
- Florida Foundation Research Professor, 1998-2001
- Fellow, Northrop Frye Centre, University of Toronto, 2000
- Medal from the Mayor of the city of St. Gaudens, 2002.
- Fellow, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, University of Toronto 2004-05, 2008-09
- (also, see under books)
Public Lectures
- Stanford University; Foothill College 1965
- Stanford University 1966
- University of California, Santa Cruz 1969
- Harvard University 1970
- University of Oregon 1972
- Whitman College 1978
- University of Virginia (two); Washington University; University of Texas; UCLA 1979
- Collège de France; University of Bologna; University of Padua; Trier University; University of Connecticut 1980
- University of Antwerp; University of London; Oxford University; University of Edinburgh; University of Poitiers 1982
- University of Southern California 1983
- University of Oregon Forum Lecture; Cambridge University 1984
- Oxford University; Cambridge University; University of London (two); University of Saint Andrews; University of Reading; University of Warwick; University of Antwerp; Würzburg University 1985
- University of California, Santa Barbara; University of California, Los Angeles; University of British Columbia; Simon Fraser University 1986
- Whitman College (two); Washington State University 1987
- University of Florida; Ohio State University; University of Maryland 1988
- New York University; Fordham University; University of Miami; University of Florida Humanities Series 1991
- University of Bordeaux; Whitman College; University of Oregon 1992
- University of Kansas 1993
- Harvard University; Hamilton College 1995
- Université Paul-Valéry (Montpellier III) University of Edinburgh (three); Cambridge University 1997
- University of Florida 2000
- University of Georgia 2001
- Arizona State University (two) 2002
- University of Maryland 2004
- University of Toronto (two) 2005
- University of Florida 2006
- Marquette University; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; University of Toronto 2009
Plenary Session/ Keynote Addresses
- Société Internationale Rencesvals, Liège, 1976.
- Modern Literature Colloquium, West Virginia University,
1979.
- Société Internationale Rencesvals, Padua, 1982.
- International Courtly Literature Society, Utrecht, 1986.
- Colloque: Etudes Occitanes, Wégiment (Belgium), 1989.
- Colloque: Bernard Manciet, Bordeaux, 1992.
- International Conference on Medievalism, Leeds, 1994.
- Conference on Reading the Margins, University of Oregon,
1994.
- South Atlantic MLA, Atlanta, 1995.
- Conference on Women and Medieval Writing, University of
Western Ontario,
2000.
- International Conference on Medievalism, Hope College
(Michigan), 2000.
- South Atlantic MLA, Birmingham, 2000.
- Colloquium on Marie de France, King's College (Ontario), 2005.
Books
- The Old French Epic of Revolt: "Raoul de Cambrai," "Renaud de Montauban," "Gormond et Isembard." Geneva: Droz, 1962. 235 pp.
- (with Michel Banamou) Aux Portes du Poème. New York: Macmillan, 1964. 126 pp.
- The Epic Quest: Studies in Four Old French "Chansons de Geste." Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1966. 271 pp.
- La Chanson de Roland. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968. 183 pp.
- A Poet at the Fountain: Essays on the Narrative Verse of Guillaume de Machaut. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1974. 264 pp.
- Crown, Cross and Fleur-de-lis: An Essay on Pierre Le
Moyne's Baroque Epic
"Saint Louis." Saratoga: Stanford French and Italian Studies, 1977. 77 pp. - A Muse for Heroes: Nine Centuries of the Epic in France. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983. 514 pp. This book was awarded the Gilbert Chinard First Literary Prize in 1981, and the American Library Association Choice Award for 1984.
- In Defense of French Poetry: An Essay in Revaluation. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1987. 208 pp.
- The French Tradition and the Literature of Medieval
England. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. 587 pp. xvi.
Hardcover and paperback. This book won the
American Library Association Choice Award for 1995. - Minority Literatures and Modernism: Scots, Breton, and
Occitan, 1920-1990. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2000. 399 pp. ix. Hardcover and Paperback. - The Twentieth-Century Humanist Critics: From Spitzer to Frye. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Hardcover and paperback.
- Also c. 110 articles and chapters, some reprinted, and c. 210 papers and lectures, some delivered more than once.
Current and Future Research
- The French Tradition and the Literature of Medieval and
Renaissance Scotland
- What is Christian Literature?
- Studies in the Occitan Baroque
