Dr. Thomas Trezise

Biography

Thomas Trezise specializes in modern French literature, literary theory, continental philosophy, trauma studies, and Holocaust studies. He earned his B.A. summa cum laude from Cornell University and his M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University, having also studied at the University of Paris and the University of Strasbourg. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1986 after teaching at Dartmouth College. Trezise is the author of "Breach: Samuel Beckett Ends Literature" (Princeton University Press, 1990; 2016), "Witnessing Reception: Holocaust Survivor Testimony" (Fordham University Press, 2013), and "Unscripted: Spouse’s Story" (University of California Press, forthcoming 2026). His publications include a French translation of Paul de Man’s "Allegories of Reading" (Galilée, 1989) and co-translation of Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’s "Subject Philosophy" (Minnesota, 1993). He edited volumes published in "Yale French Studies" including "Encounters with Levinas" (2004) and "Patrick Chamoiseau: The Art of Words Without Borders" (forthcoming 2026). Trezise has served as Director of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department from 2015 to 2023, and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Program in European Cultural Studies since 2013. His current research focuses on literature and culture in Martinique and Guadeloupe, while his teaching interests include undergraduate courses on twentieth-century French literature and representations in media, alongside graduate seminars on the twentieth-century novel, literary theory, phenomenology, post-structuralism, and philosophical approaches to subjectivity and language.

Research Interests