Staff profile

I studied French and Philosophy at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and went on to complete a PhD on French Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, in 2011. I then spent a year back at Christ Church as a Temporary Lecturer, and three semesters at the University of St Andrews as a Teaching Fellow and Lecturer, before arriving in Durham in January 2014. 

My research focuses on nineteenth-century French literature, especially poetry. I am interested primarily in questions of exoticism and nationalism. I recently completed my first monograph, Laforgue, Philosophy, and Ideas of Otherness, which deals with the reception of German philosophy in the work of the late nineteenth-century French poet Jules Laforgue and the importance to this reception of contemporary discourses that cast Germany as 'other'. I have also co-edited (with Dr Claire White, Cambridge) a Special Issue of Dix-Neuf, the journal of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes, on Laforgue.

In 2016 I completed a two-month fellowship at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, to begin work on a new project dealing with the reception of Buddhist thought in nineteenth-century France. 

Authored book

• Bootle, S. (2018). Laforgue, Philosophy, and Ideas of Otherness. Legenda

Chapter in book

• Bootle, S. (2012). Jules Laforgue: Derniers vers. In R. Clark, E. Elliott, & J. Todd (Eds.), The Literary Encyclopedia
• Bootle, S. (2011). Jules Laforgue: Les Complaintes. In R. Clark, E. Elliott, & J. Todd (Eds.), The Literary Encyclopedia

Conference Paper

• Bootle, S. (2014). Sea Sponges, Polyps and Mechanical Fish: the Decadent Aquarium. Modern Language Association Annual Convention 2014 in Chicago, USA.
• Bootle, S. (2013). The Underwater World, Underground: Laforgue and Huysmans on the Berlin Aquarium. Society for French Studies Annual Conference at Nottingham University.
• Bootle, S. (2012). Le Nihilisme oriental: Buddhism in Nineteenth-Century French Literature. St Andrews French Research Seminar at St Andrews University.
• Bootle, S. (2011). The Discourse of Disease: Laforgue's Reception of Schopenhauer. Society of Dix-Neuviémistes 9th Annual Conference at Birmingham University.
• Bootle, S. (2010). Laforgue's 'Afrique Intérieure': A Vital Chaos? Society of Dix-Neuviémistes Postgraduate Conference.
• Bootle, S. (2010). Genius and the Unconscious: Laforgue's Reception of Hartmannian Aesthetics. Oxford French Postgraduate Seminar at Oxford University.
• Bootle, S. (2010). Jules Laforgue and the Illusion of Spontaneity. Society of Dix-Neuviémistes 8th Annual Conference at Bangor University.
• Bootle, S. (2009). Laforgue's Reading of Schopenhauer in its Cultural Context. Cambridge French Graduate Research Seminar at Cambridge University.

Journal Article

• Bootle, S. (2019). 'Plongée poétique : Rimbaud, Laforgue, et Vingt mille lieues sous les mers'. Parade sauvage, 29, 133-153. https://doi.org/10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-09038-0.p.0133
• Bootle, S. (2017). Laforgue et le bouddhisme dilettante. Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, 117(2), 273-282. https://doi.org/10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-06928-7.p.0017
• Bootle, S. (2016). The Body Poetic: Laforgue's Translations of Whitman. Dix-Neuf: New Directions in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 20(1), 25-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/14787318.2016.1141848
• Bootle, S., & White, C. (2016). Introduction: Jules Laforgue, 'un carrefour d'échos'. Dix-Neuf: New Directions in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 20(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/14787318.2016.1145927
• Bootle, S. (2011). Jules Laforgue and the Illusion of Spontaneity. Dix-Neuf: New Directions in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 15(2), 166-176. https://doi.org/10.1179/147873111x13113768737118