Teaching Matters

Michael Randall

Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature
Ph.D., Princeton University

Current research
I recently completed a book called "The Gargantua Polity: On the Demise of the Individual in the French Renaissance." My recent articles have ranged widely, from poetics in Rabelais to the relationship of rhetoric and music in the Burgundian poet Jean Molinet; from medieval ideas of perception in early Renaissance poetry to Averroisitic concepts of nature in a late-medieval moralization of the Romance of the Rose; plus, the evolution of toads in the French Renaissance.

Favorite classroom experience
I always enjoy watching students read Rabelais — the mix of vulgarity and high culture in his novels is quite foreign to most modern readers. Since the French is also difficult, most students struggle to understand it. As it begins to dawn on them what Rabelais is actually saying, jaws drop, and I feel I have achieved something special.  

What makes Brandeis special
The students I teach do not simply pay lip service to the university’s motto — "truth even unto its innermost parts" — but actually make it a part of their lives. They are willing to read and engage with Rabelais and other difficult authors, from foreign and often alien cultures and periods. Their openness to such experiences and their effort to read these texts are the signs of truly open-minded and courageous intellects. (A Rabelaisian reading of the university motto, incidentally, would prove rather funny).

Last book read for pleasure
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid.

Favorite world city to visit
Changsha, China. It’s where my wife and I adopted our daughter.