Romance and Classical Studies

R. J. Berg Associate Professor of French Department of Romance and Classical Studies Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 Office Phone: (419) 372-7148 Email: rberg@bgsu.edu

Professor Berg received his doctoral degree at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) where he trained primarily as a dix-neuviémiste. Since the publication in 1990 of his study on La Querelle des critiques en France à la fin du XIX^e siècle his interests have broadened to include French film, business practices and political culture. 

He is the author of widely used textbooks in literature (Littérature française: textes et contextes, vols. I & II, 1994, 1997) and business French (Parlons affaires! Initiation au français économique et commercial, 2^nd ed. 2006).

Fiction published to date: D’en haut: proses (Éditions Triptyque, 2002) and La Légende d’Eriel, conte, suivie de L’Histoire de Zsuzsa J., récit (Éditions France Univers, 2009).

His À la rencontre du cinéma français: analyse, genre, histoire (Yale University Press, 2010), was designed for use as the core text in advanced undergraduate and graduate French cinema courses. The book is intended to serve as an alternative to the usual topic-, content- or theme-based film fare—the “Dossiers de l’écran approach” (so dubbed in the book’s preface with reference to the TV show on which a screening was followed by a debate on the issues raised by the film—issues that might just as well have been culled from the pages of a novel or “ripped from today’s headlines”). From the preface: “There is, of course, no reason why films should not be used as springboards for discussion of timely and controversial issues—unless, that is, the object is to learn about film. In that case it would seem preferable to focus on the cinematically specific, on the warp and fabric of the film itself, the stuff of which it is made: close-ups and long shots, straight cuts and lap dissolves, flashbacks and forward tracks, swish pans and fourth walls, low-key lighting and high-angle shots, depths of field and points of view, zooms and wipes and eyeline matches—and, of course, the functions they serve. […] The practice of seeing parts in light of the whole and technique in terms of its function has a long tradition in literary studies where it is known as close reading. À la rencontre was conceived first and foremost as a guide to close viewing.”

His ninth book, Péril en la demeure, Regards d’un Américain sur la langue française (France Univers, 2011) has been officially recognized and is being promoted by the association Défense de la langue francaise.

Department of Romance and Classical Studies
203 Shatzel Hall
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403
Phone: (419) 372-2667
Fax: (419) 372-7332
Email:rberg@bgsu.edu