Fanny Van Exaerde

Fanny Van Exaerde holds a BA in French Literature and a BA in Foreign Languages, Literatures and Civilisations (English), an MA in French Literature. She also completed a first year of an MA in Film Studies before starting a joint PhD between the University of Lille and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (promotors: Florence de Chalonge and David Gullentops). Defended in 2023 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the University of Lille, her PhD thesis focuses on Jean Cocteau’s screenplays in the light of a historical recontextualization and an approach that is both genetic and intermedial. This work was rewarded with the Thesis Award 2024 from Lille Doctoral School.

Her research interests include Jean Cocteau’s work, twentieth-century literature, textual genetics, archives, screenplays, intermediality, iconotextuality, cinema and, more recently, ordinary writings. She is a member of the Screenwriting Research Network and of the Association Française de Recherche sur l’Histoire du Cinéma, and she is also affiliated to Alithila (University of Lille). During her PhD, she taught French Literature (XIX^th, XX^th and XXI^st centuries), methodology, creative writing and intermediality courses to BA students at the University of Lille.

She recently wrote the text presenting the Jean Cocteau retrospective held at the Cinémathèque française (Paris, nov. 2023). As a co-ordinator of the “Cinema” section, she takes part in the editing process for the Cocteau Dictionary project (Champion, 2027).