Biography

Following an undergraduate degree in International Commerce and French at University College Dublin, I moved to France where I worked for two years as a lectrice at Université Rennes 2 while undertaking a Master in lettres modernes. I subsequently completed my National University of Ireland-funded doctorat at the Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7.

My research specialisms include nineteenth-century French literature, visual culture and nocturnal history. A monograph based on a significant restructuring and translation of my doctoral thesis, Bourgeois Nights: Representing Nocturnal Paris in July Monarchy Culture (1830–1848), is under contract with Liverpool University Press. I have also published elsewhere or have peer-reviewed articles and chapters forthcoming on the history of nocturnal Paris, nineteenth-century women's writing, connections between fashion studies and night studies, Balzac's ecology, and representations of the scene in cultural productions. I am also co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of the Irish Journal of French Studies on the theme of 'Passages'.

I am currently working on a new interdisciplinary literary cartography project 'Mapping the Nightscape: Literary Street Scenes in July Monarchy and Second Empire Paris' which sets out to transform our understanding of the nineteenth-century urban landscape, and thus of the city today, by combining literary studies, social geography, spatial theory and data analytics.


Research Interests

  • Nineteenth-century French literature and visual culture
  • Night Studies
  • History of Paris and Urban Humanities
  • Women Writers
  • Digital Humanities

Research Grants

  Project Funding
Body
Start Date End Date Award
Imaginaire et poésie nocturnes de Paris. La nuit parisienne dans les productions culturelles de la monarchie de Juillet (1830–1848) National University of Ireland (NUI)

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2025) 'Night Air: Miasma Theory and La Cousine Bette'
Charlotte Berkery (2025) 'Night Air: Miasma Theory and La Cousine Bette'. Revue Balzac / The Balzac Review, [Details]
(2025) 'Passing Presences: Street Lighting as 'Site of Action' in July Monarchy Paris'
Charlotte Berkery (2025) 'Passing Presences: Street Lighting as 'Site of Action' in July Monarchy Paris'. Irish Journal of French Studies, [Details]
(2025) 'Faire passage en contextes francophones'
Charlotte Berkery and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert (2025) 'Faire passage en contextes francophones'. Irish Journal of French Studies, [Details]
(2025) '“If the nightcap fits…” Middle-Class Metonymy and Monotony in July Monarchy Cultural Productions'
Charlotte Berkery (2025) '“If the nightcap fits…” Middle-Class Metonymy and Monotony in July Monarchy Cultural Productions'. Nineteenth Century French Studies, [Details]

Edited Books

  Year Publication
(2025) Passages
Charlotte Berkery; Laëtitia Saint-Loubert (Ed.). (2025) Passages Ireland: Irish Journal of French Studies. [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2025) 'The Changing Face of Nocturnal Paris: From the Advent of the Modern Night to the Present Day'
Charlotte Berkery (2025) 'The Changing Face of Nocturnal Paris: From the Advent of the Modern Night to the Present Day' In: The Routledge Handbook of the History of Paris since 1789. Oxford: Routledge. [Details]
(2024) 'Hidden Figures: Women Writing the July Monarchy Night'
Charlotte Berkery (2024) 'Hidden Figures: Women Writing the July Monarchy Night' In: Marginal Paris. Representing the Shadows of the City of Light. Leiden: Brill. [Details]

Book Reviews

  Year Publication
(2025) Jessica Tanner. Sex Work, Text Work: Mapping Prostitution in the Nineteenth-Century French Novel. Northwestern University Press, 2023.
Charlotte Berkery (2025) Jessica Tanner. Sex Work, Text Work: Mapping Prostitution in the Nineteenth-Century French Novel. Northwestern University Press, 2023. Book Reviews [Details]
(2022) Courant, Elsa. Poésie et cosmologie dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle: nouvelle mythologie de la nuit à l’ère du positivisme. Droz, 2020.
Charlotte Berkery (2022) Courant, Elsa. Poésie et cosmologie dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle: nouvelle mythologie de la nuit à l’ère du positivisme. Droz, 2020. Book Reviews [Details]

Honours and Awards

  Year Title Awarding Body
2022 Society of Dix-Neuviémistes ECR Grant SDN
2015 NUI Travelling Studentship National University of Ireland

Professional Associations

  Association Function From / To
Society for French Studies Member /
Société des études romantiques et dix-neuviémistes Member and international correspondent /
Society of Dix-Neuviémistes Member /

Committees

  Committee Function From / To
ADEFFI (Association des études françaises et francophones d'Irlande) Executive Committee Treasurer /

Teaching Interests

Module coordinator: FR2202 Literary Seminar I, FR4803 The Changing Face of French Cinema, FR2306 The Theatre of the Absurd.