Toril Moi
James B. Duke Professor of Literature
Toril Moi has three broad areas of interest: feminist theory and women's writing; the intersection of literature, philosophy and aesthetics; and ordinary language philosophy in the tradition of Wittgenstein, Cavell and Austin.
Toril Moi also works on theater. In her work on literature and theater she is particularly interested in the emergence of modernism in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Her books include Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory (1985; 2nd edition 2002), Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (1994; second edition with a major new introduction 2008); and What Is a Woman? And Other Essays (1999), republished in a shorter version as Sex, Gender and the Body (2005). She is the editor of The Kristeva Reader (1986), and of French Feminst Thought (1987).
In 2006, Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosphy, was published in English by Oxford University Press and in Norwegian by Pax Forlag (Oslo). The book won the MLA's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for the best book in Comparative Literary Studies in 2007. It is now available in paperback.
Toril Moi now works on three projects: (1) The Emergence of European Modernism 1870-1914; (2) Femisist Theory and Women Writers; and (3) "Pictures of Language": on the vision of language in ordinary language philosophy. She also continues to work on Henrik Ibsen's plays.
Toril Moi enjoys working with students at all levels. She won Duke's Univeristy Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award in 1998, and the Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring of Graduate Students in 2008.
In her native Norway, Toril Moi writes a regular column for the cultural newspaper Morgenbladet.
Education
- Dr. Art., University of Bergen 1985
- Mag. art., University of Bergen 1980
Moi, T. Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2006. (Monograph)
Moi, T. Sex, Gender and the Body: The Student Edition of What Is a Woman?. Oxford and New York: Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (Monograph)
Moi, T. What Is a Woman? and Other Essays. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, January 1999. (Collection)
Moi, T. Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman. Oxford & Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994. (Monograph)
Various, . French Feminist Thought. Ed. T Moi. Oxford and New York: Blackwell, 1987. (Edited Book)
Kristeva, J. The Kristeva Reader. Ed. T Moi. Oxford: Blackwell, and New York: Columbia, 1986. (Edited Book)
Moi, T. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. London and New York: Methuen, 1985. (Monograph)
Moi, T. "Hedda’s words: The work of language in Hedda Gabler." Ibsen's Hedda Gabler: Philosophical Perspectives. January 1, 2017. 152-173. Full Text
Moi, T. "The adulteress wife." On Ne Nait Pas Femme: On Le Devient the Life of a Sentence. January 1, 2017. 103-113. Full Text
Moi, T. "'Nothing Is Hidden’: From Confusion to Clarity, Or Wittgenstein on Critique." Rethinking Critique. Ed. E Anker and R Felski. Duke University Press, 2016. (Essay)
Moi, T. "‘Øyeblikkets bedrageriske fylde’: Handling, språk og eksistens i Liv Køltzows forfatterskap." Å forsvinne i teksten. Ed. L Køltzow and HP Blad. Oslo: Flamme Forlag, May 20, 2015. (Essay)
Moi, T. "Stumhet og kjærlighet: En lesning av Amtmandens Døttre [Muteness and Love: A Reading of The District Governor’s Daughters]." Å bli en stemme: Nye studier i Camilla Colletts forfatterskap. Ed. T Haugen. Oslo: Novus Forlag, 2014. 33-54. (Essay)
Moi, T. "Ibsen’s Late Style." Henrik Ibsen, The Master Builder and Other Plays. Penguin Books, 2014. (Introduction)
Moi, T. "’Something That Might Resemble a Kind of Love’: Fantasy and Realism in Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf." Understanding Love Through Philosophy, Film, and Fiction, ed. Susan Wolfe and Christopher Grau. London and New York: Oxford University Press, December 11, 2013. 185-208. (Essay)
Moi, T. "‘To Make them Other, and Face Them’: Literature, Philosophy and ‘La Femme rompue’." Women, Genre and Circumstance: Essays in Memory of Elizabeth Fallaize. Ed. M Atack, D Holmes, D Knight, and J Still. Oxford: Legenda, 2012. 11-24.
Moi, T. "Thinking through Examples: What Ordinary Language Philosophy Can Do for Feminist Theory (Accepted)." New Literary History 46.3 (June 1, 2015). (Essay)
Moi, T. "Thinking through examples: What ordinary language philosophy can do for feminist theory." New Literary History 46.2 (March 1, 2015): 191-216. (Review) Full Text
Bauer, N, Beckwith, S, Crary, A, Laugier, S, Moi, T, and Zerilli, L. "Introduction." New Literary History 46.2 (2015): v-xiii. Full Text
Moi, T. "Hedda’s Silences: Beauty and Despair inHedda Gabler." Modern Drama 56.4 (December 2013): 434-456. Full Text
Moi, T. "Afterword: How the French Read." New Literary History 44 (2013): 299-314.
Moi, T. "Shame and Openness: On Karl Ove Knausgård." Trans. Moi, T and Lunde, AF. Salmagundi Magazine 107.Winter (2013): 205-210. (Review)
Moi, T. "Henrik Ibsen and idealism. Rethinking the literary history of the 19th century." Etudes Germaniques 248.4 (January 1, 2007): 915-932.
Dupont, N, and Moi, T. "The poetic piping of Christian Prigent: Ventiloquits framework and glottic phrase." Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 10.2 (December 1, 2006): 127-140. Full Text
MOI, T. "ANOTHER COLETTE - THE QUESTION OF GENDERED WRITING - HUFFER,L." FRENCH FORUM 20.2 (May 1995): 250-252.
Moi, T. ""Am I That Name": Reply to Deborah Knight." New Literary History 26.1 (1995): 57-62. Full Text