Clara Manco
Maîtresse de conférences
Introduction | Books and Edited Volumes | Select Articles and Book Chapters | Outreach
Introduction
Research themes
- Literature of the Restoration and long eighteenth century (1660-1800)
- Theatre history and practice, in particuliar its social and political dimensions
- Comedy studies, irony, satire and comic genres
- Gender in the long eighteenth century
- Performance and racialised representations
- History of emotions in the long eighteenth century
In addition to the research themes listed above, I am happy to supervise research on translation and adaptation in the 17th and 18th centuries (French, German, Italian).
Teaching
My teaching centers on the history of gendered and racial representations in literature and the visual arts of the long eighteenth century.
I currently teach two specialist courses: “Representing Masculinity in the Long Eighteenth Century” and, together with my colleagues Ladan Niayesh, Sara Thornton and Sandeep Bakshi, an innovative teaching class entitled “Genealogies of Race in British Literature, from the Medieval to the Ultra‑Contemporary”.
Previously taught specialty courses include “American Renaissance: The Influence of Seventeenth‑Century British Writing on Nineteenth‑Century American Literature” and “The Street in the Long Eighteenth Century.”
This year, I also teach a class on Tristram Shandy for the agrégation, the French competitive examination for future teachers.
In addition, I serve as the convenor of the Drama Workshop, with a particular focus on comedy.
Current projects
In June 2025 I organised, with Sorbonne Université and Sorbonne Nouvelle, a 3-day conference on Aphra Behn. A selection of papers coedited with Line Cottegnies and Aurélie Griffin will be published in 2027 as a special issue of the journal Aphra Behn Online. The conference ended with a performance of “The Town Fop” by students, with baroque music. You can watch it here!
In September 2025, the conference “Le Non-dit / Things unsaid, things unwritten” closed a cycle started in June 2024 with “Consentir, refuser, céder / Consent, refuse, surrender”. Both events were coorganised with the IRCL in Montpellier. Papers have been published as a special dossier of the journal of the Société d’Études Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles in 2025.
In 2026 I obtained a BRIO seed funding to start a project on early modern race and performance. The seminar Undiscipline, Decolonize, Repair will host its first event in September 2026.
I am currently working on my first monograph, which is under contract with Manchester University Press, with the support of the SEAA 17-18. It aims to bring perspectives from comedy studies to our approach of Restoration texts.
I have the priviledge of being a part of the Restoration Comedy Project, led by the University of Seville, which edits a catalogue of plays of the second half of the seventeenth century.
Finally, I have the pleasure of being an active member of the GIS Sociabilités.
Recent conference papers
June 2026: “Relieving Sorrow, Mitigating Distress”, Montpellier.
June 2026: SAES conference, “Theatre and Emancipation”, Poitiers (online).
Nov. 2025: “Théâtre de la sidération II : Rire et comique”, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardennes.
July 2025: “Staging Silence”, University of Cambridge.
June 2025: “Traduire et adapter les plaisanteries de Molière”, University Lyon-2.
January 2025: seminar “Rethinking Literary Obscurity”, Université Paris Cité.
Biography
- Maître de Conférence / Assistant Professor at Université Paris Cité (since 2023)
- Casual lecturer and course convenor at University of Cambridge and colleges (2018-23)
- PhD + course convenor in Anglophone literature, Sorbonne Université (2020)
- École Normale Supérieure, Paris (until 2015)
- Lectrice, Oxford University (2014-15)
- Course convenor, Sorbonne Nouvelle (2013-14)
- Agrégation in English (2013)
- M.A. in Comparative literature, Sorbonne Université (2012)
- B.A. in German and B.A. in French literature, Sorbonne Université (2006-09)
Books and Edited Volumes
Select Articles and Book Chapters
Publications
Monography
- Laughter and the Restoration Stage (provisional title), Manchester University Press, forthcoming.
Edited books and special issues
- Special feature “Le Consentement”, Revue de la Société d’Études Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 82, 2025.
- Le Jeu et ses règles dans l’Angleterre et la France des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Line COTTEGNIES, Clara MANCO and Alexis TADIÉ eds., Classiques Garnier, Paris, 2025.
Book chapters
- “John’s Crowne’s The Destruction of Jerusalem: An adaptation of Racine’s Bérénice?”, in Le Théâtre classique français en Europe: transfert, traductions, adaptations (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle), Tristan ALONGE and Florence MARCH eds., Hermann, Paris, 2026.
- “Coffee-houses on the Restoration Comic Stage: Tarugo’s Wiles (1667) and other examples”, in La Représentation et la réinvention des espaces de sociabilité au cours du long XVIIIe siècle, Annick COSSIC-PÉRICARPIN and Emrys JONES eds., Le Manuscrit, Paris, 2021.
Peer-reviewed articles
- “‘The Cant he hopes will not be long unknown’: langages, pouvoir et espaces dans The Squire of Alsatia“, Revue de la Société d’Études Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, forthcoming.
- “Comedy and the Politics of Memory: Representations of the Civil War in Robert Howard’s The Committee and Thomas Otway’s The Souldiers Fortune”, Revue de la Société d’études anglo-américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 78, 2021.
- “Games and the Margins: Winning Fops and Gambling Women on the Restoration Comic Stage”, Etudes Epistémè : revue de littérature et de civilisation (XVIe – XVIIIe siècles), 39, 2021.
- “Structures comiques et double discours politique à la Restauration : l’exemple de The Surprisal de Robert Howard”, Etudes Anglaises, 72 (3), 2019.
Full list of publications