Professor Adam Piette

School of English

Professor of Modern Literature

English Adam Piette
Profile picture of English Adam Piette
a.piette@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 8494

Full contact details

Professor Adam Piette
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
Profile

I did my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Cambridge, with a PhD on prose rhymes and the representation of memory in French and Irish modernist texts.

I taught at the Universities of Paris XIII, Geneva and Lausanne for ten years whilst turning the thesis into an OUP book — Remembering and the Sound of Words (Oxford University Press, 1996) — and publishing a study of Second World War fiction and poetry, Imagination at War (Macmillan, 1995).

I then worked as a lecturer then Reader at the University of Glasgow between 1997 and 2005, where I specialised in 20th century teaching in American and English literature and worked closely with Willy Maley on teaching creative writing at MA level, helping found and run the Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing.

In 2003, I was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship funding a book on Cold War writing: The Literary Cold War, 1945 to Vietnam (Edinburgh University Press, 2009). I co-edited The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century British and American War Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012) with Mark Rawlinson. More recently, I have published articles on Beckett, Joyce, Nabokov, the war story, Elizabeth Bowen, Muriel Spark, postwar espionage fiction, 20th century poetry.

I also am general editor of the student creative writing magazine, Route 57, and co-edit the poetry journal, Blackbox Manifold.

Route 57

Black Box Manifold

Research interests

I am working on other aspects of Cold War culture, and help run the Cultures of the Cold War network.

Cultures of the Cold War

I am also currently researching Beckett and am planning a series of articles on Beckett and the French Cold War, Beckett and the maternal, Beckett and reader response. I am also researching espionage fiction, contemporary poetry, the Cold War and the construction of Europe.

Publications

Books

  • Piette A & Rawlinson M (2012) The Edinburgh companion to twentieth-century British and American war literature. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A & Rawlinson M (2012) The Edinburgh companion to twentieth-century British and American war literature. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2012) Introduction: Genres. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2012) Introduction: Spaces. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2012) Introduction: The wars of the twentieth century. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2009) The literary Cold War, 1945 to Vietnam. Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (1996) Remembering and the Sound of Words: Mallarmé, Proust, Joyce, Beckett: Mallarme, Proust, Joyce, Beckett. Clarendon Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (1995) Imagination at war : British fiction and poetry, 1939-1945. Papermac. RIS download Bibtex download

Edited books

  • (Ed.) (2012) The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century British and American War Literature. Edinbrugh: Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A, Lehoczky A, Sansom P & Sansom A (Eds.) (2012) The Sheffield Anthology: Poems from the City Imagined. Sheffield: Smith/Dorrstop. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A & Lehoczky A (Ed.) (2012) Wordwards. Mass Observation. RIS download Bibtex download
  • (Ed.) (2007) The Salt Companion to Peter Robinson. Cambridge: Salt Publishing. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (Ed.) (2003) Modernism and Translation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Piette A (2023) Baldwin’s communicating cats (pp. 1099-1115). Informa UK Limited RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2023) 'the summoning urgent thing': The Bull Calves and the Drive to Experiment at Mid-Century’ In Purdon J (Ed.), Naomi Mitchison: A Writer in Time (pp. 122-134). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2023) War and Nuclear Criticism, WAR AND LITERARY STUDIES (pp. 336-351). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2022) Beckett’s Poetry and the Radical Absence of the (War) Dead In Brophy J & Davies W (Ed.), Samuel Beckett's Poetry (pp. 189-202). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2021) Midcentury Nonsense and Destructive Mockery In Barton A & Williams J (Ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense (pp. 114-128). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2021) Peter Robinson and European Integration In Phillips T (Ed.), Peter Robinson: A Portrait of his Work (pp. 106-123). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2020) Cold War Poetry and Migrant Writing, The Palgrave Handbook of Cold War Literature (pp. 345-365). Springer International Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2019) The Security State Citizen and the Global Cold War: Beckett, Greene, Kavan, Ballard In Belletto S & Keith J (Ed.), Neocolonial Fictions of the Global Cold War (pp. 187-203). University of Iowa Press View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2018) Poetry, the Early Cold War and the Idea of Europe, British Literature in Transition, 1940–1960: Postwar (pp. 161-175). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2018) The War Story In Delaney P & Hunter A (Ed.), Edinburgh Companion to the Short Story in English (pp. 211-224). Edinburgh University Press View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2018) Poetry, the Early Cold War and the Idea of Europe In Plain G (Ed.), 1940-1960: Postwar (pp. 161-175). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2018) The War Story In Hunter A & Delaney P (Ed.), Edinburgh Companion to the Short Story in English (pp. 211-224). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2018) Sacrifice and the Inner Organs of the Cold War Citizen In Houen A & Schramm J (Ed.), Sacrifice and Modern War Literature: The Battle of Waterloo to the War on Terror Oxford: Oxford University Press. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2017) 'my soldiers’: F.T. Prince and the Sweetness of Command In May W (Ed.), Reading F. T. Prince Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2016) Sputniks, Ice-Picks, G.P.U.: Nabokov's Pale Fire In Eckel L & Elliott C (Ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Atlantic Literary Studies (pp. 357-370). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2016) Deep Geological Disposal and Radioactive Time: Beckett, Bowen, Nirex and Onkalo’ In Beck J & Bishop R (Ed.), Cold War Legacies: Systems, Theory, Aesthetics (pp. 102-115). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2016) 'Now listen, Mr Leer!': Joyce's Lear In Williams J & Bevis M (Ed.), Edward Lear and the Play of Poetry (pp. 281-299). Oxford: Oxford University Press. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2016) Postwar Espionage Fiction: Memory and Fascism in Emergency-State Thinking In Rau P (Ed.), Long Shadows: The Second World War in British Fiction and Film (pp. 177-196). Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2016) Torture, Text, Human Rights: Beckett’s Comment c’est / How It Is and the Algerian War In Hepburn A (Ed.), Around 1945: Literature, Citizenship, Rights (pp. 151-174). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2015) Cold War Morgan In Riach A (Ed.), The International Companion to Edwin Morgan (pp. 87-100). Scottish Literature International View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2015) War and the short story: Elizabeth Bowen, British Women Short Story Writers: The New Woman to Now (pp. 66-80). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2015) War and the Short Story: Elizabeth Bowen In Young E & Bailey J (Ed.), British Women Short Story Writers: The New Woman to Now (pp. 66-80). Edinburgh University Press View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2015) War Modernism, 1918-1945 In Davis A & Jenkins L (Ed.), A History of Modernist Poetry (pp. 417-433). View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A (2014) Beckett's ill seen ill said: Reading the subject, subject to reading, The Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts (pp. 320-329). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2014) First World War Poetry In DeMaria R, Chang H & Zacher S (Ed.), Blackwell Companion to British Literature (pp. 195-209). Blackwell: Oxford. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2014) War and Division in Parade’s End In Chantler A & Hawkes R (Ed.), Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End: The First World War, Culture, and Modernity (pp. 141-152). Amsterdam: Rodopi. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2012) Bernard Spencer's Wars In Robinson P (Ed.), Bernard Spencer: Essays on his Poetry & Life (pp. 88-103). Bristol: Shearsman. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2012) The Fictions of Nuclear War, from Hiroshima to Vietnam In Piette A & Rawlinson M (Ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century British and American War Literature (pp. 160-171). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • (2012) INTRODUCTION: SPACES, EDINBURGH COMPANION TO TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH AND AMERICAN WAR LITERATURE (pp. 427-430). RIS download Bibtex download
  • (2012) INTRODUCTION: GENRES, EDINBURGH COMPANION TO TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH AND AMERICAN WAR LITERATURE (pp. 475-478). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2010) Muriel Spark and the Politics of the Contemporary In Gardiner M & Maley W (Ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Muriel Spark (pp. 52-62). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2010) Beckett's Eve: Ill Seen Ill Said and the Miltonic Attendance Motif In Stirling K & Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère M (Ed.), After Satan: Essays in Honour of Neil Forsyth (pp. 165-180). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2010) Mothers, Mirrors, Doubles: Anne Stevenson’s Elegies for Sylvia Plath In Leighton A (Ed.), Voyages over Voices: Critical Essays on Anne Stevenson (pp. 55-70). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2009) War Zones In McLoughlin K (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to War Writing (pp. 38-46). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2009) War Poetry in Britain In MacKay M (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the World War II (pp. 13-25). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2008) Keith Douglas and the Poetry of the Second World War’ In Corcoran N (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century English Poetry (pp. 117-130). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2007) Empson, Piaget and the Logic of the Child in Wartime In Bevis M (Ed.), Some Versions of Empson (pp. 42-59). OUP Oxford RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2007) Pointing to East and West: British Cold War Poetry’ In Kendall T (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry (pp. 632-652). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2007) Left to their own Devices In Robinson P (Ed.), Talk About Poetry: Conversations on the Art (pp. 111-123). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2007) Reed, Greene and the Freudian Cold War: From The Third Man to the Third World In Kerkinos, Dimitris & Moizaka, Desmoina (Ed.), Carol Reed (pp. 51-55). Thessaloniki: Papyrus. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2007) Keith Douglas and the Poetry of the Second World War In Corcoran N (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century English Poetry (pp. 117-130). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2005) Breaking Down or Breaking Out?: Pat Barker in conversation with Adam Piette’ In Saunders C & Macnaughton J (Ed.), Madness and Creativity in Literature and Culture (pp. 222-236). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2004) World War II: Contested Europe In Marcus L & Nicholls P (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature (pp. 417-435). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2004) 'Roaring between the Lines': W.S. Graham and the White Threshold of Line-Breaks In Pite R & Jones H (Ed.), W.S. Graham: Speaking Towards You (pp. 44-62). Liverpool University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (2002) Travel-Writing and the Imperial Subject in 1930s Prose: Waugh, Bowen, Smith, and Orwell In Siegel K (Ed.), Issues in travel writing (pp. 53-65). Peter Lang Pub Inc RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (1996) Finnegans Wake and Familial Memory In Senn W (Ed.), Families (pp. 249-256). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (1994) Sound-Repetitions and Sense, or How to Hear Tennyson In Fischer A (Ed.), Repetition (pp. 157-169). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette AC (1993) Beckett, Early Neuropschology and Memory Loss: Beckett's reading of Claparède, Janet and Korsakoff In Buning M (Ed.), Beckett in the 1990s (pp. 41-48). Rodopi RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A () ‘Cast A Cold Eye’, The Oxford Handbook of W.B. Yeats (pp. 281-296). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download

Book reviews

Designs

  • Piette A (2022) Igitur's dream. RIS download Bibtex download

Website content

  • Piette A & Houen A (2012) Blackbox Manifold. Retrieved from http://www.manifold.group.shef.ac.uk/ RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piette A The Sound of Things in Alice Oswald’s Woods. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Piettte A & Piette A Double Wartime and the Second World War. RIS download Bibtex download

Scholarly editions

  • Piette AC & Lehoczky A (2012) Ebenezer Elliott, Corn Law Rhymer: Poems of Sheffield & Environs. RIS download Bibtex download

Other

  • Piette AC (2009) Trailing in the Wake of Story: The Poetry of Burgess Needle, i-vi. RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

I welcome research students working in any area of modernism, those interested in war studies, particularly the Cold War in literature, and would be happy to supervise projects on Joyce, Beckett, Proust, French-English comparative work, research into 20th century and contemporary poetry, and am willing to work with creative writing students.

Teaching activities

I teach on the Modern and Contemporary Literature core modules, approved modules on Cold War Fiction and Film, and Irish Fiction, and help convene the Creative Writing MA programme.