Jean-Claude Vuillemin

Jean-Claude Vuillemin (born 24 March 1954) is Liberal Arts Research Professor Emeritus of French literature in the Department of French and Francophone Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. In 2023, he became a member of the Penn State Emeritus Academy.

Career The recipient in March 2011 of the prestigious PSU Class of 1933 Award for Distinction in the Humanities, JC Vuillemin pursues research in 17th-Century French Literature and Philosophy; Post-structuralism and Reception theories; Baroque Episteme; Semiotics of Drama; Theater and Performance Theories; Continental Philosophy and Contemporary French Literature. Inspired by the Foucauldian notion of épistémè, and by the "linguistic turn" combined to the "actor paradigm," JC Vuillemin has continually challenged the ideological perception of a "classical" France and advocated the pertinence of the Baroque as a pertinent concept to be applied not only to architecture and visual arts, but also to literature and philosophy. Although it may be argued that a major methodological interest of the Baroque hypothesis lies in its very imprecision, his book, Épistémè baroque: le mot et la chose (Hermann, 2013) provides a new theory for a concept which JC Vuillemin associates with the epistemological breakdown Europe experienced in the wake of the emergence of Modern science. As a conceptual framework in which poetics, politics, and epistemology interact, his conception of the Baroque is much less aesthetic than purposefully philosophical. According to JC Vuillemin, Sapere aude ('dare to know') should be the motto of the Baroque.

JC Vuillemin collaborated to the first critical edition of Jean Rotrou’s complete theater (Belles-Lettres / Sorbonne-Paris-4, 1998-2019) and he published in 2017 an ongoing annotated digital bibliography: Jean de Rotrou: bibliographie critique . Vuillemin collaborated as well to the first Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century French Philosophers (Thoemmes Press / CNRS; trans. for Classiques Garnier). In addition to his book on Baroque episteme, he wrote one book on Rotrou’s dramaturgy (Baroquisme et théâtralité), three critical editions of Rotrou's plays (L’Hypocondriaque; L’Innocente Infidélité; La Belle Alphrède), and he has authored many articles, book chapters, and reviews. He frequently lectures on both sides of the Atlantic. In his latest book, Foucault l'intempestif (Hermann, 2019), JC Vuillemin revisits and clarifies some key concepts of the so-called "pensée Foucault," and pleads for the emergence of a "post-Cartesian" subject whose discourse (logos) will be congruent with his or her actions (ergon).