Real Time: Accelerating Narrative from Balzac to Zola

Acknowledgments

vii Acknowledgments I would like to thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for a generous fellowship that allowed me to do much of the writing of this book during the 1999–2000 academic year. I owe a debt of gratitude as well to the administration of Arts and Sciences at Duke University for allowing me to accept the NEH grant by releasing me from teaching during the fellowship period. The material that became this book was the topic of many conversations with colleagues both at Duke and elsewhere, and I would like to thank those who reacted with criticism and suggestions as I explained parts of the project to them. Lawrence Schehr has been a constant and careful interlocutor over the years, and his input along the way has been invaluable—not only for this project, but for many others as well. Pierre Saint-Amand, Marcel Hénaff, Lawrence Kritzman, Franc Schuerewegen, Sydney Lévy, Rae Beth Gordon, and Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond have been extremely supportive, and I thank them for their interest. Pegge Abrams and Sharon Peters never tired of telling me to get on with it—even at the busiest times. My editor at the University of Illinois Press, Bill Regier, whose enthusiasm and intelligence are infectious, gave me much-needed energy to finish the book and get it into print. My profound gratitude to Martine and Sophie for putting up with me during the hard times. Part of the second chapter of Real Time appeared as “Balzac and the Modern City: Mapping Paris in Old Goriot,” in Approaches to Teaching Balzac’s “Old Goriot,” ed. Michal Peled Ginsburg (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2000), 81–89. An earlier version of parts 00.FM.i-x_Bell 9/11/03, 1:28 PM 7 viii Acknowledgments of the section in the second chapter dealing with Balzac’s Les Chouans appeared as “Communication: Euphoria, Dysphoria,” SubStance 26:2 (1997): 81–95, and I thank the University of Wisconsin Press for permission to use this material. 00.FM.i-x_Bell 9/11/03, 1:28 PM 8 real time 00.FM.i-x_Bell 9/11/03, 1:28 PM 9 00.FM.i-x_Bell 9/11/03, 1:28 PM 10 ...