Willa Cather Professor of French | French Section Head Modern Languages and Literatures

Jordan Stump, Professor (Ph.D. Illinois, 1992), is the author of articles on Georges Perec, Marie Redonnet, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint, among others, and of two book-length studies of the writing of Raymond Queneau: Naming and Unnaming (University of Nebraska Press, 1998) and The Other Book University of Nebraska-Press, 2012). He has published some thirty translations of novels by mostly contemporary French and Francophone writers (Marie Redonnet, Eric Chevillard, Marie NDiaye, Scholastique Mukasonga, and others).  His translation of Claude Simon's The Jardin des Plantes (Northwestern University Press, 2001) was awarded the French-American Foundation's annual translation prize in 2001, and in the fall of 2006 he was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2021, he was awarded the National Translation Award for Prose from the American Literary Translators' Association for The Cheffe. Dr. Stump was featured in an article about his work in translations.

Committee Involvement in DMLL

  • Executive Committee for Modern Languages & Literatures
  • French Section Head
  • Undergraduate Transfer Credit Evaluator

Publications

Books

  • The Other Book: Bewilderments of Fiction. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2011.
  • Naming and Unnaming: On Raymond Queneau. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1998.

Translations (Book Length)

  • NDiaye, Marie.  That Time of Year.  San Francisco: Two Lines Press, 2020.
  • Mukasonga, Scholastique.  Igifu.  New York: Archipelago Books, 2020. 
  • NDiaye, Marie.  The Cheffe.  London: MacLehose Press; New York: Knopf Books, 2019.  Winner, Annual Translation Prize for Prose, American Literary Translators’ Association, 2020.  Shortlisted, Scott Montcrieff Translation Prize (UK), 2020.
  • Mukasonga, Scholastique.  The Barefoot Woman.  New York: Archipelago Books, 2018.  [Named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by the New York Times, 2019.  Finalist, French-      American Foundation Translation Prize, 2019.  Finalist, National Book Award for Literature in Translation, 2019.]
  • Balzac, Honoré de.  The Memoirs of Two Young Wives.  New York: New York Review Books, 2017.
  • NDiaye, Marie.  My Heart Hemmed In. San Francisco: Two Lines, 2017.  [Finalist, Three Percent Best Translated Book Award, 2018]
  • Mukasonga, Scholastique.  Cockroaches.  New York: Archipelago, 2016.  [Finalist, Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose; Finalist, French-American Foundation Prize; Finalist, PEN Center Translation Prize.]
  • NDiaye, Marie.  Ladivine.  New York: Knopf, 2016.  [Longlisted, Man Booker International Prize; Shortlisted, International Dublin Literary Award]
  • NDiaye, Marie.  Self-Portrait in Green.  San Francisco: Two Lines Books, 2014.  [Finalist, PEN Translation Award, 2015].  Republished in the UK by Influx Press, 2020.
  • Chevillard, Éric.  The Author and Me.  Champaign: Dalkey Archive, 2014.  [Finalist, Three Percent Best Translated Book Award, 2015].
  • Balzac, Honoré de.  “Another Study of Womankind,” “Adieu,” “Sarrasine.”  In The Human Comedy: Selected Stories by Honoré de Balzac.  Ed. Peter Brooks.  New York: New York Review Books,   2013.
  • NDiaye, Marie.  All My Friends.   San Francisco: Two Lines Books, 2013.  [Finalist, French-American Foundation Prize, 2014.]
  • Bassmann, Lutz.  We Monks and Soldiers.   Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2012.  [Finalist, French-American Foundation Prize, 2013]
  • Chevillard, Éric.  Demolishing Nisard.  Champaign: Dalkey Archive, 2011.  [Finalist, French-American Foundation Prize, 2012]
  • Siniac, Pierre.  The Collaborators.  Champaign: Dalkey Archive, 2010.  [Finalist, PEN Translation Award, 2011.]
  • Fabre, Dominique.  The Waitress Was New.  New York: Archipelago Books, 2008.  [Finalist, PEN Translation Award, 2009; longlisted for Three Percent’s “Best Translated Book 2008” Award]
  • Queneau, Raymond.  Numbers, Letters, Forms: Essays, 1928-1970.  Champaign: U of Illinois P, 2007.
  • Ricardou, Jean.  Place Names: A Brief Guide to Travels in the Book.  Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press, 2007. [Finalist, French-American Foundation Translation Prize, 2008]
  • Redonnet, Marie.  Understudies.  San José: Leaping Dog Press, 2005.
  • Volodine, Antoine.  Minor Angels.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2004. [Finalist for the National Translation Award, American Literary Translator’s Association, 2005.]
  • Toussaint, Jean-Philippe.  Television.  Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive, 2004. [Named the Spring 2006 “Read This!” selection by The Litblog Co-op]
  • Balzac, Honoré de.  The Wrong Side of Paris.  New York: Random House / Modern Library, 2003. [Finalist for the French-American Foundation Translation Prize, 2003.]
  • Oster, Christian.  My Big Apartment.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2002. [Reissued by Rupa and Co., New Delhi, 2005.]
  • Verne, Jules.  The Mysterious Island.  New York: Random House / Modern Library, 2001.
  • Simon, Claude.  The Jardin des Plantes.  Evanston: Northwestern UP, 2001. [Winner of the French-American Foundation Translation Prize, 2001; finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Translation, 2002.]
  • Chevillard, Eric.  On the Ceiling.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2000. 
  • Modiano, Patrick.  Out of the Dark.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1998. [Nominated for the Dublin IMPAC award, 1999.]
  • Chevillard, Eric.  The Crab Nebula.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1997. [Nominated for the Dublin IMPAC award, 1998.]
  • Redonnet, Marie.  Nevermore.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1996.
  • Hôtel Splendid.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1994.
  • Forever Valley.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1994.
  • Rose Mellie Rose.  Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1994.

Shorter Translations

  • Mukasonga, Scholastique.  “Grief.”  The New Yorker, June 15, 2020.
  • Chevillard, Eric.  “Peter and the Wolf”; “Hegel’s Cap”; Extracts from The Autofictive and The Brave Little Tailor.  Music and Literature 8 (Special issue on Chevillard), 2018.  “Peter and the Wolf”        reprinted as “Theme and Violations” in Harper’s Magazine, Oct. 2017.

Forthcoming Translations

  • Miracles of Love: French Fairy Tales by Women.  Edited by Nora Peterson, translated by Jordan Stump.  Forthcoming from MLA publications, “Texts and Translations” series.
  • Chevillard, Éric.  The Valiant Little Tailor.  To be published by Yale University Press, spring 2022.

Translations in Progress

  • NDiaye, Marie.  Vengeance Is Mine.  Under contract to Knopf Books / MacLehose Press.  To be completed spring 2022.

Articles

  • “Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Unfinished.” Substance 35.3 (2006): 95-112.
  • “Texte avant texte, lecture après lecture.” Raymond Queneau: le mystère des origines. Ed. Yves Ouallet. Rouen: Publications des Universités de Rouen et du Havre, 2005. 117-31.
  • “Reading Through the Manuscript: The Case of Queneau’s Le chiendent.” Dalhousie French Studies 48 (1999): 61-73.
  • “The Ghosts of Eric Chevillard.” French Review 71.5 (1998): 820-31.
  • “At the Intersection of Self and Other: Marie Redonnet.” Thirty Voices in the Feminine. Ed. Michael Bishop. Faux Titre 114. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996. 267-73.
  • “L’eau qui efface, l’eau qui anime: du triptyque de Marie Redonnet.” L’eau: source d’une écriture dans les littératures féminines francophones. Ed. Yolande Helm. Francophone Literatures and Cultures 4. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. 103-11.
  • “Separation and Permeability in Marie Redonnet’s Triptych.” French Forum 20.1 (1995): 105-19.
  • Un homme qui dort et ses doubles.” French Review 67.4 (1994): 609-18.
  • “Naming and Forgetting in Queneau’s Pierrot mon ami.” International Fiction Review 20.3 (1993): 112-19.
  • “La place du lieu dans Les infortunes de la vertu.” Romance Quarterly 39.4 (1992): 439-46.
  • “‘Le voile pervers’: anonymat et sexualité chez Sally Mara.” Constructions 1991: 37-55.
  • “De la répétition dans L’assommoir.” Chimères 19.1 (1986): 37-55.

Invited Appearances

  • Virtual interview / conversation on Marie NDiaye and Scholastique Mukasonga, Oxford University Francophone Conversation Series, January 2021. 
  • Interview on Marie NDiaye’s That Time of Year, Trafika Europe Radio, November 2020.
  • Virtual conversation on Marie NDiaye’s That Time of Year with Imani Perry, Community Bookstore, Brooklyn, September 2020.
  • Invited participant, round table on “The Beginning of the Twenty-First Century,” MLA convention, Seattle, January 2020.
  • Reading / discussion / signing at Unabridged Bookstore, Chicago; Seminary Co-op, Chicago; Magers and Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, August 2017.
  • Introduction of Scholastique Mukasonga and 20-minute reading of my translation of Cockroaches, 92nd Street Y (New York), November 2016.
  • Invited participant, Round table on translation, Fall for the Book fair, George Mason University, October 2015.
  • Address to David Bellos’ “Translation Lunch”, Princeton University, April 2013. 
  • Workshop on literary translation, Literary Arts Program, Brown University, April 2011.
  • “Other People’s Words.”  Department of French, University of Illinois, September 2007.

Conference Papers

  • “Constraint? What Constraint?” Session on “Humor and its [Dis]Constraints,” American Literary Translators’ Association Annual Conference, University of Rochester, October 2012.
  • “Balzac for Americans.” Session on the French 19th Century in / on Translation, 36th Annual Nineteenth- Century French Studies Colloquium, Yale University, October 2010.
  • “Un début.” Session on Marie Redonnet, 20th / 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Texas A & M University, April 2007.
  • "The Other Side of the Island (On Verne’s L’île mystérieuse).” 30th Annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium, Washington University, October 2004.
  • “The Marginal Manuscript (On Queneau’s Le chiendent).” 20th / 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Florida State University, April 2004.
  • “Translating French Cultures.” American Literary Translators’ Association Annual Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 2003.
  • “Texte avant texte, lecture après lecture.” Colloque Raymond Queneau: Le mystère des origines. Université du Havre, March 2003.
  • “What I Learned from the Living, What I Learned from the Dead.” American Literary Translators’ Association Annual Conference, Chicago, October 2002.
  • “L’air des cimes.” Session on Jacques Jouet, Sixteenth Annual International Colloquium on 20th Century French Studies, University of North Carolina, March 1999.
  • “Three Unknowns.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, session on The French Novel of the 1990s, University of Kentucky, April 1998.
  • “After the End: Redonnet and Chevillard.” Modern Languages Association Annual Conference, session on Contemporary French Writing, Toronto, December 1997.
  • “Translation and the Impossible: On Sonnet 135.” The French Shakespeare: International Linguistic and Literary Symposium, Dalhousie University, September 1997.
  • “The Anonymous Raymond Queneau.” Fifteenth Annual Colloquium on Twentieth-Century French Studies, Ohio State University, April 1997.
  • “The Place of the Plot in the New Minuit Novel.” Midwest Modern Languages Association Annual Conference, Minneapolis, November 1996.
  • “Les destinataires des manifestes Dada.” Fourteenth Annual Colloquium on Twentieth-Century French Studies, University of Maryland, March 1996.
  • “Separation and Permeability in Marie Redonnet’s Triptych.” International Conference on Women Writers since 1985, Dalhousie University, October 1994.”
  • “The Places of Les choses.” Cincinnati Conference on Romance Literatures and Languages, May 1994.
  • “Loss and / as Permanence in Marie Redonnet’s Splendid Hôtel.” Wichita Conference on Continental, Latin-American, and Francophone Women Writers, April 1993.
  • Un homme qui dort et ses doubles.” Louisville 20th-Century Literature Conference, February 1993.

Awards and Honors

  • Winner, National Translation Award for Prose, American Literary Translators’ Association (for The Cheffe)
  • Shortlisted, Scott Montrcrieff Translation Prize (for The Cheffe)
  • Finalist, National Book Award for Literature in Translation (for The Barefoot Woman)
  • Finalist, French-American Foundation Translation Prize (for The Barefoot Woman)
  • Shorlisted, International Dublin Literary Award (for Ladivine)
  • Finalist, Three Percent Best Translated Book Award (for My Heart Hemmed In)
  • Finalist, PEN Center Translation Prize (for Cockroaches)
  • Finalist, Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Fiction, 2017 (for Cockroaches)
  • Finalist, French-American Foundation Translation Prize, 2017 (for Cockroaches)
  • Longlisted, Man Booker International Prize, 2016 (for Ladivine).
  • Outstanding Research or Creative Activity Award in Arts and Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2015.
  • Finalist, PEN International Translation Prize, 2015 (for Self-Portrait in Green)
  • Finalist, Three Percent Best Translated Book Award, 2015 (for The Author and Me)
  • Named Cather Professor of French, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2014.
  • Finalist, French-American Foundation Prize, 2014 (for All My Friends)
  • Finalist, French-American Foundation Prize, 2013 (for We Monks and Soldiers)
  • Finalist, French-American Foundation Prize, 2012 (for Demolishing Nisard)
  • Finalist, PEN Translation Prize, 2011 (for The Collaborators)
  • Finalist, PEN Translation Prize, 2009 (for The Waitress Was New)
  • Longlisted, Three Percent’s Best Translated Book 2008 Award (for The Waitress Was New)
  • Finalist, French-American Foundation Translation Prize, 2008 (for Place Names)
  • Named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, December 2006
  • Television (by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, trans. Jordan Stump) named Spring 2006 “Read This!” selection by the Litblog Cooperative
  • Finalist, American Literary Translator’s Association National Translation Award 2005 (for Minor Angels)
  • Finalist, French-American Foundation Translation Prize 2003 (for The Wrong Side of Paris)
  • Finalist, 2002 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Translation (for The Jardin des Plantes)
  • Winner, French-American Foundation Translation Prize 2001 (for The Jardin des Plantes)
  • UNL Parents’ Association Certificate, 1997, 2000, 2001

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Teaching and Research Interests

  • The Novel
  • 20th and 21st Century Literature
  • Critical Theory
  • Literary Translation