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For the better part of three decades, Professor Evlyn Gould has been exploring what happens when academic disciplines collide. Though she began college as a dance major, Gould soon added French, the language of ballet, to her repertoire. A study abroad opportunity and graduate work in Berkeley’s cutting edge French program (considered radical for its new philosophical ideas) further influenced her development, revitalizing the way she looked at literature and opening her to other modes of expression. She became interested in dance as a literary problem, which resulted in her first book, Virtual Theater, in 1989. This work examined two pieces of art based on Mallarme’s poem “The Afternoon of a Faun”—an orchestral piece by Claude Debussy which Vaclav Nijinsky then choreographed.
Gould’s interest in this type of intersection led to an interesting collaboration in the early ’90s: a group of professors, all concerned with European civilization, came together to ask, “How is it that we all talk about Europe, but don’t talk to each other?” and set about creating a course in which they would discuss current events and research in front of their students. “[We would be] showing the cracks in our knowledge, showing the disciplinary assumptions that we make about our object of study,” Gould says.
From that discussion “The Idea of Europe” was born—an interdisciplinary course combining many fields, including history, literature, classics, music and geography. Engaging Europe (eds. Gould and Sheridan), a collection of essays stemming from course lectures, followed in the spring of 2005. The Europe project also influenced The Fate of Carmen (1996), in which Gould examined non-musical aspects of the famous story.
Currently, Gould is exploring the Dreyfus affair, a political scandal of the late 19th century. The “affaire” divided French society and became, arguably, the first major media campaign of the 20th century. Gould is examining four diverse individuals, all of whom were significantly influenced by the affair: Emile Zola, Marcel Proust, Maurice Barres and Bernard Lazare. “Rather than what a historian would do, focusing on the affair itself, what I’m really trying to do is bring together very extreme positions,” Gould says. “The affair becomes an ‘empty center’ and I’m interested in the cultural positions and opinions around it.”
Throughout her career, Gould’s projects have approached their areas of focus from unique directions. She notes, “I see in my own career that I’ve managed to pick out little pieces that had not quite been talked about yet or dealt with in the most popular arenas. I try to look at what happens when I crash disciplines together.”
—SB
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