Todorov: Intellectual Background

About the lecture

In this module, we explore the academic context for Todorov’s ideas, focusing in particular on: (i) his youth in Bulgaria under the control of the USSR; (ii) his life in France studying under Roland Barthes; (iii) how Todorov became interested in narrative and form; (iv) how Todorov sought to break with the approaches to literary analysis that were dominant during his early life.

About the lecturer

Dr Karine Zbinden is Teacher of French and French Coordinator at the University of Sheffield. She is an expert in European and French Intellectual History. With fellow MASSOLIT contributor Professor Henk de Berg, Zbinden is the co-editor of ‘Tzvetan Todorov: Thinker and Humanist’ (2020).