Delbert Russell

Director and principal researcher/Distinguished Professor Emeritus (in memoriam)

Delbert Russell Professor of French

Member of the French Studies Department and the MARGOT research group.

Teaching and research interests include medieval French, with a focus on the French of England; medieval French verse hagiography; electronic texts and critical editions; contemporary Quebec and Canadian literature.

Teaching

Courses in language and cultural studies, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, ranging from first year language courses to graduate courses on medieval French language and literature, electronic texts, and contemporary Quebec literature.

Recent courses taught

Courses taught, 2007-08

French 203: Introduction to Phonetics of French
French 291: French Civilization 1
French 352: French Language 3: module 2 (Waterloo at Nantes)
French 410B: Medieval French Literature (Waterloo at Nantes)

Courses previously offered

French 151: Basic French 1
French 192A: French Language 1: module 1
French 192B: French Language 1: module 2
French 197: French Culture & Literature: Origins to 1715
French 203: Introduction to Phonetics of French
French 252: French Language 2: module 2
French 291: French Civilization 1
French 351: French Language 3: module 1
French 352: French Language 3: module 2
French 409: Medieval French Language
French 410: Medieval French Literature
French 471: French-Canadian Literature
French 473: Aspects of French Canada
French 482: Marie de France; Chrétien de Troyes
French 603: Du manuscrit au texte électronique: histoire de la langue française
French 611F: Introduction linguistique à l’ancien français
French 611B: Introduction à la littérature médiévale française
French 611C: Aspects de l’anglo-normand
French 611E: Chrétien de Troyes
French 671: Anne Hébert

Research

Research publications are in the areas of electronic publishing of Medieval and Early Modern French texts (as a founding member of the MARGOT group), translations and critical editions of Anglo-Norman hagiography, medieval multi-lingual cultural theory and practices in England, as well as earlier work in bibliography, and critical studies of modern Canadian and Quebec literature.

Research program overview

My current research is focused on three projects in medieval studies.

1) Electronic Campsey

The development and expansion of the electronic corpus of Anglo-Norman hagiography on the MARGOT website. This includes the editions of the following lives found as a unique collection in the Campsey manuscript (to which I am progressively adding editions of other manuscript copies of the six Campsey lives which are extant in other copies):

S. Elizabeth of Hungary, by Nicole Bozon (2 copies)
S. Panuce, by Nicole Bozon
S. Paul the 1st Hermit, by Nicole Bozon;
S. Thomas the martyr, by Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence (6 copies, in progress)
S. Marie Magdalene, by Guillaume le clerc de Normandie (2 copies)
S. Edward the Confessor, by a nun of Barking (3 copies, and 1 prose remaniement, in progress)
S. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, by Matthew Paris
S. Audrée of Ely, by Marie, a nun
S. Osith
S. Fey, by Simon of Walsingham
S. Modwenna (2 copies)
S. Richard, bishop of Chichester
S. Catherine of Alexandria (3 copies)

In addition to the lives from the Campsey manuscript, the electronic corpus includes the 13th-century Anglo-Norman life of S. Clement, pape (Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.46)

2) The French of England: vernacular literary theory and practices, 1130-1450

In collaboration with Jocelyn Wogan-Browne and Thelma Fenster, I am editing to a critical anthology of some 70 textual prologues or other passages in the French of England which reflect on the nature and strategies of vernacularity. Widely representative texts from the extant corpus will be edited from the manuscript sources and translated, with introductions, notes, and extensive reference to Middle English analogues and parallels. There will be a glossary, a list of Anglo-Norman /Middle English overlaps, an appendix of Middle English translations and reworkings of Prologues. This volume is a complementary volume to the earlier critical anthology, The Idea of the Vernacular: an Anthology of Middle English LIterary Theory, 1280-1520, ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor, Ruth Evans (Penn State Press, 1999).

Selected publications

Publications

2007 Electronic Campsey: editions of saints’ lives in the medieval French of England, on the MARGOT website (http://margot.uwaterloo.ca). (Electronic versions of the unique manuscript collection of 13 lives, London, BL Add. 70513, and copies of these lives in other MSS, and one contemporary life: see website for complete listing and texts).
2005 "La Vie seinte Osith," [edition by D. W. Russell, with facing-page English translation by Jane Zatta, rev. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne], Papers on Language and Literature, 41, nos. 3 & 4 (Summer & Fall 2005), 339-441 [Zatta memorial issue].
2002 La Vye de seynt Fraunceys d’Assise. Ed. D.W. Russell, with collaboration of A.R. Harden, H.S.F. Collins. Anglo-Norman Texts, Nos. 59-60. Anglo-Norman Text Society, London, 2002. x + 338 pp.
1995 La Vie seint Richard, evesque de Chichester, by Pierre d'Abernon of Fetcham. Ed. D. W. Russell. Anglo-Norman Texts, Number 51. London: Anglo-Norman Text Society. xii + 175 pp.
1989 Le légendier apostolique anglo-normand. (Un texte en prose française du 13^e siècle). Ed. D. W. Russell. Montréal & Paris: les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, & Vrin. 210 pp.
1987 Anne Hébert: An Annotated Bibliography in The Annotated Bibliography of Canada's Major Authors, Vol. 7. Eds. Robert Lecker, Jack David. Toronto: ECW Press, 1987, pp. 115-270.
1983 Anne Hébert. Twayne World Authors Series, 684. Boston: Twayne. 155 pp.
1976 La Vie de St. Laurent. An Anglo-Norman Poem of the Twelfth Century. Ed. D. W. Russell. Anglo-Norman Texts, Number 34. London: Anglo-Norman Text Society. x + 78 pp.

Collaborations

2002 Marie Le Jars de Gournay, Les Advis (1641), vol. II, eds. J.-P. Beaulieu, H. Fournier, with collaboration of D. W. Russell, Amsterdam: Rodopi. 330 pp.
1997 Marie LeJars de Gournay, Les Advis (1641), vol. 1, eds. J-P. Beaulieu, H. Fournier, with collaboration of D.W. Russell, Amsterdam: Rodopi. 262 pp.
1986 Lucy Maud Montgomery: A Preliminary Bibliography. (With Ruth Russell, Rea Wilmshurst.) University of Waterloo Bibliography Series, 13. Waterloo: University of Waterloo Library. xxiii + 175 pp.

Service

Administrative service at the University of Waterloo includes: Chair of French Studies Department, 1990-95; Faculty of Arts Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research, 1996-2000; Resident Director, Waterloo-Trent-Toronto programme at the Université de Nantes, 1983-84, 1995-96, Fall 2002, Winter 2008.

Affiliation:

University of Waterloo

Contact information:

Delbert Russell