Brian Nelson (literature professor)

Brian Nelson is a professor of French Studies at Monash University, Melbourne and editor of the Australian Journal of French Studies.^[1][2] Nelson graduated with an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and did postgraduate work at Oxford University.^[2] Before going to Monash he taught at the University of Wales Aberystwyth, and one year in Paris.^[2] Nelson teaches modern French literature and cultural studies on topics such as Paris and "The Female Body", as well as translation studies.^[2]

In addition to a number of monographs including Zola and the Bourgeoisie and Émile Zola: A Selective and Analytical Bibliography, he has made a number of modern translations of Emile Zola for the Oxford World's Classics series.^[1][2] About these translations, Nelson said:

My aim as a translator is to transform Zola's prose into a work of art that approaches the original, that is, is faithful to the spirit of the original. This means capturing the structure and rhythms, the tone and texture, and the lexical choices --in sum, the particular idiom-- of Zola's novel, as well as preserving the "feel" of the social context out of which the novel emerged and which it represents."^[3]

In addition to being editor of the Australian Journal of French Studies,^[1][4] Nelson co-founded the journal Romance Studies,^[1][5] edit the monograph series Monash Romance Studies,^[1][2] and is President of AALITRA (the Australian Association for Literary Translation).^[6][7]

Works

Author

• Zola and the Bourgeoisie: A Study of Themes and Techniques in Les Rougon (1982)
• Émile Zola: A Selective and Analytical Bibliography
• Naturalism in the European novel: new critical perspectives‎ (1992)

Editor

• The Cambridge Companion to Zola (2007)

Translator

• The Ladies' Paradise (Oxford 1995)
• The Kill (Oxford 2004)
• The Belly of Paris (Oxford 2007)
• Pot Luck (Oxford 1999)

Notes