Bio

Joshua Landy is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French, Professor of Comparative Literature, and co-director of the Literature and Philosophy Initiative at Stanford, home to a PhD minor and undergraduate major tracks in Philosophy and Literature.

Professor Landy is the author of Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust (Oxford, 2004) and of How To Do Things with Fictions (Oxford, 2012). He is also the co-editor of two volumes, Thematics: New Approaches (SUNY, 1995, with Claude Bremond and Thomas Pavel) and The Re-Enchantment of the World: Secular Magic in a Rational Age (Stanford, 2009, with Michael Saler). Philosophy as Fiction deals with issues of self-knowledge, self-deception, and self-fashioning in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, while raising the question of what literary form contributes to an engagement with such questions; How to Do Things with Fictions explores a series of texts (by Plato, Beckett, Mallarmé, and Mark) that function as training-grounds for the mental capacities.

Professor Landy has appeared on the NPR shows "Forum" and "Philosophy Talk" (on narrative selfhood and on the function of fiction) and has on various occasions been a guest host of Robert Harrison's "Entitled Opinions" (with Lera Boroditsky on Language and Thought, with Michael Saler on Re-Enchantment, with John Perry and Ken Taylor on the Uses of Philosophy, and with Alexander Nehamas on Beauty).

Professor Landy has received the Walter J. Gores Award for Teaching Excellence (1999) and the Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching (2001).

Academic Appointments

  • Professor, French and Italian
  • Professor, Comparative Literature
  • Professor (By courtesy), English
  • Professor (By courtesy), Philosophy
  • Member, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Administrative Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (1996 - 2004)
  • Co-director of the Initiative in Philosophy and Literature, Stanford University (2004 - Present)
  • Visiting Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago (2004 - 2004)
  • Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (2004 - 2007)
  • Associate Professor, Department of French and Italian and (by courtesy) of English, Stanford University (2007 - 2013)
  • Professor, Departments of Comparative Literature, French & Italian, and (by courtesy) English, Stanford (2013 - Present)
  • Andrew B. Hammond Chair of French Language, Literature, and Civilization, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (2013 - Present)

Honors & Awards

  • Fellowship, National Humanities Center (2011 - 2012)
  • Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, Stanford University (2001)
  • The Walter J. Gores Award for Teaching Excellence, Stanford University (1999)
  • Mrs. Giles Whiting Honorific Fellowship in the Humanities, Princeton University (1994 - 1995)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Editorial board member, Oxford Series in Philosophy and Literature (2014 - Present)
  • Director of Graduate Studies, French, Stanford University (2013 - 2015)
  • Editorial board member, Arcade (2009 - Present)
  • Member, Stanford Humanities Fellows Executive Committee, Stanford University (2009 - Present)
  • Chair, Department of French and Italian, Stanford University (2006 - 2007)
  • Co-founder, co-director, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Philosophy and Literature Initiative, Stanford University (2004 - Present)
  • Co-chair, Philosophy and Literature Focal Group, Stanford University (2002 - Present)
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies (intermittent), French, Stanford University (1998 - 2005)

Program Affiliations

  • Modern Thought and Literature
  • Philosophy and Literature

Professional Education

  • PhD, Princeton University, Comparative Literature (1997)
  • MA, Cambridge University, French & German (1991)
  • BA, Churchill College, Cambridge, French & German (1988)

Contact

  • Academic
    landy@stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: French and Italian Position: Professor
    • 260-104
    • Stanford,  California  94305-2010 
    University - Faculty Department: Comparative Literature Position: Professor

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 2031

Links

2024-25 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • LYRIC SELF-FASHIONING: SONNET 35 AS FORMAL MODEL PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE Landy, J. 2021; 45 (1): 224-248

    View details for Web of Science ID 000667939500016

  • Mental Calisthenics and Self-Reflexive Fiction The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Approaches to Literature Landy, J. Oxford University Press. 2015: 559–80

    View details for DOI 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199978069.013.0028

  • Conditional Goods and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: How Literature (as a Whole) Could Matter Again SUB-STANCE Landy, J. 2013; 42 (2): 48-60

    View details for Web of Science ID 000331799500004

  • Formative Fictions: Imaginative Literature and the Training of the Capacities POETICS TODAY Landy, J. 2012; 33 (2): 169-216

    View details for DOI 10.1215/03335372-1586581

    View details for Web of Science ID 000305160200002

  • THE DEVIL, THE MASTER-CRIMINAL, AND THE RE-ENCHANTMENT OF THE WORLD (ON THE USUAL SUSPECTS) PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE Landy, J. 2012; 36 (1): 37-57

    View details for Web of Science ID 000307921300004

  • Deceit, Desire, and the Literature Professor: Why Girardians Exist Republics of Letters Landy, J. 2012; 3 (1)
  • Still Life in a Narrative Age: Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation CRITICAL INQUIRY Landy, J. 2011; 37 (3): 497-514

    View details for DOI 10.1086/659355

    View details for Web of Science ID 000291266300008

  • Passion, Counter-Passion, Catharsis: Beckett and Flaubert on Feeling Nothing The Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Literature Landy, J. edited by Hagberg, G., Jost, W. Oxford: Blackwell. 2010: 28–38
  • Corruption by Literature Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowledge, Politics, and the Arts Landy, J. 2010; 1 (2)
  • The Abyss of Freedom: Love and Legitimacy in Constant’s Adolphe Nineteenth Century French Studies Landy, J. 2009; 37: 193-213
  • A Nation of Madame Bovarys: On the Possibility and Desirability of Moral Improvement through Fiction Art and Ethical Criticism Landy, J. edited by Hagberg, G. Oxford: Blackwell. 2008: 63–94
  • Philosophical training grounds: Socratic sophistry and Platonic perfection in 'Symposium' and 'Gorgias' ARION-A JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND THE CLASSICS Landy, J. 2007; 15 (1): 63-122

    View details for Web of Science ID 000250664800006

  • Proust, his narrator, and the importance of the distinction POETICS TODAY Landy, J. 2004; 25 (1): 91-135

    View details for Web of Science ID 000221140700004

  • Nietzsche, Proust, and will-to-ignorance PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE Landy, J. 2002; 26 (1): 1-23

    View details for Web of Science ID 000176613300002

  • Zinger, clunker, clanger, flunker: On two-point comparisons, and why we love them BRITISH JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS Landy, J. 2024

    View details for DOI 10.1093/aesthj/ayae004

    View details for Web of Science ID 001284424500001

  • Don't Feed the Liars! On Fraudulent Memoirs, and Why They're Bad PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE Landy, J. 2022; 46 (1): 137-161

    View details for DOI 10.1353/phl.2022.0008

    View details for Web of Science ID 000820005600009

  • Saving the Self from Stories: Resistance to Narrative in Primo Levi's The Periodic Table NARRATIVE Landy, J. 2022; 30 (1): 85-103

    View details for Web of Science ID 000750021900005

  • In Praise of Depth: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Hidden NEW LITERARY HISTORY Landy, J. 2020; 51 (1): 145–76

    View details for DOI 10.1353/nlh.2020.0006

    View details for Web of Science ID 000525764600007

  • Why Proust Isn't an "Essayist," and Why It Matters ROMANIC REVIEW Landy, J. 2020; 111 (3): 392–407

    View details for DOI 10.1215/00358118-8819589

    View details for Web of Science ID 000645221900006

  • THE MOST OVERRATED ARTICLE OF ALL TIME? PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE Landy, J. 2017; 41 (2): 465–70

    View details for Web of Science ID 000425482100015

  • The Point of the Pyramid: Michael Fried’s Flaubert's ‘Gueuloir' Los Angeles Review of Books Landy, J. 2013
  • How to Do Things with Fictions Landy, J. New York: Oxford University Press. 2012
  • PROUST AMONG THE PSYCHOLOGISTS PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE Landy, J. 2011; 35 (2): 375-387

    View details for Web of Science ID 000298023300013

  • Il falso di sacre teorie Il Manifesto Landy, J. 2011: 10-11
  • A Beautiful Life The Athens Review of Books Landy, J., Translated by Mentzalira, C. 2011: 14-18
  • Un égoïsme utilisable pour autrui’: le statut normatif de l'auto-description chez Proust Morales de Proust Landy, J. edited by Bertini, M., Compagnon, A. Paris: L’Harmattan. 2010: 83–99
  • Secular Magic in a Rational Age The Human Experience Landy, J. 2010
  • The Re-Enchantment of the World: Secular Magic in a Rational Age edited by Landy, J., Saler, M. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 2009
  • Re-Enchantment The American Scholar Landy, J., Saler, M. 2009: 10-11
  • Modern Magic: Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and Stéphane Mallarmé The Re-Enchantment of the World: Secular Magic in a Rational Age Landy, J. edited by Landy, J., Saler, M. Stanford University Press. 2009: 102–29
  • The Varieties of Modern Enchantment The Re-Enchantment of the World: Secular Magic in a Rational Age Landy, J., Saler, M. edited by Landy, J., Saler, M. Stanford University Press. 2009: 1–14
  • A Beatrice for Proust? Poetics Today Landy, J. 2008; 28: 607-18
  • Mallarméan Magic: Retrospective Necessity, Lucid Illusion, and the Re-Enchantment of the World Symbolism Landy, J. 2008; 8: 259-78
  • Philosophy to the Rescue Philosophy and Literature Landy, J. 2007; 31: 405-19
  • The Paradox of Perfection Poetics Today Landy, J. 2005; 26 (1): 161-8
  • Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust Landy, J. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004
  • Accidental Kinsmen: Proust and Nietzsche Philosophy and Literature Landy, J. 2003; 27: 450-5
  • Philosophy as Self-Fashioning: Alexander Nehamas’s Art of Living Diacritics Landy, J., Anderson, R. L. 2001; 31: 25-54
  • Les Moi en Moi The Johns Hopkins University Press JOURNALS PUBLISHING DIVISION Landy, J. 2001; 32 (1): 91-132

    View details for DOI 10.1353/nlh.2001.0006

  • The Texture of Proust’s Novel Cambridge Companion to Proust Landy, J. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001: 117–34
  • Pearson on Mallarmé Nineteenth Century French Studies Landy, J. 1998; 26: 463-5
  • Introduction Thematics: New Approaches Landy, J., Bremond, C., Pavel, T. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1995: 1–6
  • Thematics: New Approaches edited by Bremond, C., Pavel, T., Landy, J. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 1995
  • Music, Letters, Truth and Lies: ‘L’Après Midi d’un Faune’ as an ars poetica Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature Landy, J. 1994; 42: 57-69