François Proulx

My current research investigates Marcel Proust’s use of private codes and allusions in his manuscripts, letters, and drawings. I published (with Caroline Szylowicz) the first comprehensive inventory of Proust's drawings to the composer Reynaldo Hahn, documenting over 180 sketches (Bulletin d'informations proustiennes, 2022). Other articles related to Proust's drawings and letters have appared in Textual Practice, Modern Language Notes, Bulletin Marcel Proust, Bulletin d'informations proustiennes, and Nineteenth-Century French Studies.

In 2026, I edited or co-edited 28 newly discovered letters from or to Marcel Proust in Cent lettres inédites. Correspondance retrouvée, 1886-1922 (Honoré Champion / Bibliothèque nationale de France). The book followed a major acquisition by the National Library of France and was reviewed in newspapers including Le Monde, Libération, and Le Temps.

In 2022, for the centenary of Marcel Proust's death, I co-edited "Proust to Other Ends" (with Hannah Freed-Thall), a special issue of L'Esprit Créateur. I also contributed four entries to the exhibition catalogue Proust, la fabrique de l'oeuvre (Gallimard / Bibliothèque nationale de France).

I am Associate Editor of Nineteenth-Century French Studies, as well as a member of the editorial boards of Bulletin d'informations proustiennes and Bulletin Marcel Proust. I am also an affiliate of the Proust research team (Équipe Proust) at ITEM, the Institute for Modern Texts and Manuscripts, Paris (Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes, CNRS/ENS).

In recent years I have given invited lectures and talks in France (Collège de France, École normale supérieure, Fondation Singer-Polignac, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Sorbonne Université), Japan (University of Nagoya), the UK (Cambridge, Oxford), and the US (Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU).