Emeritus Professor Peter Cryle
Emeritus Professor
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
+61 7 336 51063
Researcher biography
Professor Peter Cryle's research interests include representations of psycho-sexual pathology in popular and middle-brow French fiction of the fin-de-siècle. He also has a strong interest in the literature of libertine enlightenment in French.
BA (Queensland), MA (Queensland), DU (Nice)
Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, FAHA
Peter Cryle is the author of Bilan Critique : "L'Exil et le royaume" d'Albert Camus. Essai d'analyse (Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1973); Roger Martin du Gard, ou De l'intégrité de l'être à l'intégrité du roman (Paris: Lettres Modernes, 1984); The Thematics of Commitment: The Tower and the Plain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985); Geometry in the Boudoir: Shifting Positions in Classical French Erotic Narrative (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994); The Telling of the Act: Eroticism as Narrative in French Fiction of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Delaware: Delaware University Press, 2001); La Crise du plaisir, 1740-1830 (Lille: Septentrion, 2003). He is co-editor, with Lisa O'Connell, of Libertine Enlightenment: Sex, Liberty, and Licence in the Eighteenth Century (London: Palgrave, 2003).
Recent articles and book chapters include "Etat présent de la critique sadienne", Dix-Huitième Siècle, 31, 1999, 507-524; "Beyond the Canonical Sade", Paragraph, Vol. XXIII, 1, March 2000, 15-25; "Making Room for Women in Pornographic Writing of the Early Nineteenth Century: Entre chien et loup, by Félicité de Choiseul-Meuse", in Lloyd and Nelson (eds) Women Seeking Expression, Monash, Monash Romance Studies, 2001, 11-23; "Petite-maîtrise: The Ethics of Libertine Foppery", Esprit Créateur, 2003, and "Le Marbre féminin", Revue des Sciences Humaines, 2003.
He is currently preparing a book on representations of psycho-sexual pathology in popular and middle-brow French fiction of the fin-de-siècle, tentatively entitled The Pathological Unknown.
Publications
Books
Stephens, Elizabeth and Cryle, Peter (2017). Normality: a critical genealogy. Chicago, IL, United States: University of Chicago Press. doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226484198.001.0001
Cryle, Peter and Moore, Alison (2011). Frigidity: An intellectual history. Basingstoke, Hampshire, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230337039
Cryle, P. M. (2003). La Crise du Plaisir 1740-1830. Lille: Septentrion Presses Universitaires.
Cryle, Peter (2002). The Telling of the Act: Eroticism as Narrative in French Fiction of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Delaware: University of Delaware Press.
Cryle, P. M. (2001). The Telling of the Act: Sexuality as Narrative in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
Cryle, Peter (1994). Geometry in the boudoir: Configurations of French erotic narrative. Ithaca, NY, United States: Cornell University Press.
Cryle, P, Freadman, A. and Hanna, B. (1993). Unlocking Australia's language potential: Profiles of 9 key languages in Australia (Vol. 3: French). Canberra: National Languages & Literacy Institute of Australia.
Book Chapters
Cryle, Peter (2024). The moral radicalism of libertine dalliance in eighteenth-century France. Cursed blessings: sex and religious radical dissent in Early Modern Europe. (pp. 155-162) edited by Umberto Grassi. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781003299974-12
Cryle, Peter and Stephens, Elizabeth (2023). 43. Normal. Keywords for Health Humanities. (pp. 146-149) New York, NY United States: New York University Press. doi: 10.18574/nyu/9781479808083.003.0047
Cryle, Peter (2015). Anachronistic Readings of Eighteenth-Century Libertinage in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France. Sex, Knowledge, and Receptions of the Past. (pp. 65-85) edited by Kate Fisher and Rebecca Langlands. Oxford, London: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660513.001.0001
Cryle, Peter (2015). Translation as lexical invention: an intellectual history of frigiditas and anaphrodisia. Sexology and Translation: Cultural and Scientific Encounters Across the Modern World. (pp. 19-36) edited by Heike Bauer. Philadelphia, PA, United States: Temple University Press.
Cryle, Peter (2013). Fairytale humanity in French libertine fiction of the mid-eighteenth century. Representing humanity in the Age of Enlightenment. (pp. 161-172) edited by Alexander Cook, Ned Curthoys and Shino Konishi. London, United Kingdom: Pickering & Chatto Publishers.
Cryle, Peter (2012). Humanities research agendas in Australia since 1969: literary and textual studies. Taking stock: the humanities in Australian life since 1968. (pp. 46-52) edited by Ian Donaldson and Mark Finnane. Perth, WA, Australia: University of Western Australia Press.
Cryle, Peter (2011). On the unsteadiness of sexual truth in eighteenth-century France. Bodies, sex and desire from the renaissance to the present. (pp. 168-180) edited by Kate Fisher and Sarah Toulalan. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cryle, P. M. and Forth, C. E. (2008). Introduction: The Makings of a Central Problem. Sexuality at the Fin de Siècle: The Making of a "Central Problem". (pp. 9-22) edited by Cryle, P. M. and Forth, C. E.. Newark, Delaware, USA: University of Delaware Press.
Cryle, P. M. (2008). The Aesthetics of the Spasm. Sexuality at the Fin de Siècle: The Makings of a "Central Problem". (pp. 77-92) edited by Cryle, P. M. and Forth, C. E.. Newark, Delaware, USA: University of Delaware Press.
Cryle, P. M. (2005). Dorat. Romanciers libertins du dix-huitieme siecle, Vol II. (pp. 1451-1476) edited by Patrick Wald Lasowski. Paris, France: Gallimard.
Cryle, P. M. (2004). Codified indulgence: The niceties of libertine ethics in Casanova and his contemporaries.. Libertine Enlightenment: Sex, Liberty and Licence in the Eighteenth Century.. (pp. 48-60) edited by P. Cryle and L. O'Connell. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230522817
Cryle, P. M. and O'Connell, L. M. (2003). Sex, liberty and licence in the eighteenth century. Libertine Enlightenment: Sex, Liberty and Licence in the Eighteenth Century. (pp. 1-14) edited by Peter Cryle and Lisa O'Connell. Basingstoke, England ; New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230522817
Cryle, P. M. (2001). Producing the voice in erotic narrative. Telling Performances: Essays on Gender, Narrative, and Performance. (pp. 97-133) edited by B. Nelson, A. Freadman and P. Anderson. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
Cryle, P. M. (2000). The Kama Sutra as curriculum. Taught Bodies. (pp. 17-25) edited by C. O'Farrell, D. Meadmore, E. McWilliam and C. Symes. New York: Peter Lang.
Cryle, P. M. (1999). Nouvelles, aspects thematiques. Albert Camus 18: La reception de l'oeuvre de Camus en U.R.S.S. et en R.D.A.. (pp. 160-165) edited by Raymond Gay-Crosier. Paris: Lettres modernes minard.
Journal Articles
Cryle, Peter and Stephens, Elizabeth (2021). Normality: A collection of essays. History of the Human Sciences, 34 (2), 3-8. doi: 10.1177/0952695120984074
Cryle, Peter, Donaghy, Paige, Stephens, Elizabeth and Clement, Jennifer (2019). Disciplinary perspectives on ‘Thinking with’ sex. Australian Feminist Studies, 34 (99), 120-127. doi: 10.1080/08164649.2019.1605493
Cryle, Peter (2018). Words and things: the uncertain place of philology in intellectual history. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 65 (2), 65-80. doi: 10.1080/20512856.2018.1499329
Stephens, Elizabeth and Cryle, Peter (2017). Eugenics and the normal body: the role of visual images and intelligence testing in framing the treatment of people with disabilities in the early twentieth century. Continuum, 31 (3), 1-12. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1275126
Cryle, Peter (2016). Italian sexualities uncovered, 1789-1914. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 25 (2), 354-356.
Cryle, Peter (2015). Female Intimacies in Seventeenth-Century French Literature by Marianne Legault (review). Journal of the History of Sexuality, 24 (3), 534-536.
Cryle, Peter (2014). Sade: Queer Theorist. Modern Language Review, 109 (3), 806-807. doi: 10.5699/modelangrevi.109.3.0806
Cryle, Peter (2013). Carnal Reading: Early Modern Language and Bodies. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 22 (3), 544-546.
Cryle, Peter (2012). Hysteria complicated by ecstasy: the case of Nanette Leroux. French History, 26 (4), 569-570. doi: 10.1093/fh/crs110
Cryle, Peter (2012). Vaginismus: A Franco-American story. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 67 (1), 71-93. doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrq079
Beccalossi, Chiara and Cryle, Peter (2012). Recent developments in the intellectual history of medicine: A special issue of the journal of the history of medicine. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 67 (1), 1-6. doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrr020
Cryle, Peter (2010). La Forme et le sens: nouvelles etudes sur le roman des Lumieres [The form and senses: new studies on the Enlightenment novel]. French Studies, 64 (4), 485-486. doi: 10.1093/fs/knq125
Moore, Alison and Cryle, Peter (2010). Frigidity at the Fin de Siecle in France: A Slippery and Capacious Concept. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 19 (2), 243-261. doi: 10.1353/sex.0.0096
Cryle, Peter (2010). The average and the normal in nineteenth-century French medical discourse. Psychology and Sexuality, 1 (3), 214-225. doi: 10.1080/19419899.2010.494893
Cryle, Peter (2009). Les choses et les mots: Missing words and blurry things in the history of sexuality. Sexualities, 12 (4), 437-450. doi: 10.1177/1363460709105709
Cryle, Peter (2009). Interrogating the work of Thomas W. Laqueur. Sexualities, 12 (4), 411-417. doi: 10.1177/1363460709105707
Cryle, Peter and Downing, Lisa (2009). Feminine sexual pathologies. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 18 (1), 1-7. doi: 10.1353/sex.0.0031
Cryle, Peter (2009). "A terrible ordeal from every point of view": (Not) managing female sexuality on the wedding night. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 18 (1), 44-64. doi: 10.1353/sex.0.0037
Cryle, Peter (2008). Playful theory: George Poulet's phenomenological thematics. Culture, Theory and Critique, 49 (1), 21-34. doi: 10.1080/14735780802024224
Cryle, P. M. (2008). De la devote marivaudienne, et de l'indulgence des petits plaisirs. Revue des Sciences Humaines, 291 (3), 51-64.
Cryle, Peter M. (2008). Building a sexological concept through fictional narrative: The case of 'frigidity' in late nineteenth-century France. French Cultural Studies, 19 (2), 115-140. doi: 10.1177/0957155808089661
Cryle, Peter (2006). La Mettrie and charlatanism: The dynamics of recognition and denunciation. Cultural and Social History: The Journal of the Social History Society, 3 (3), 301-314. doi: 10.1191/1478003806cs061oa
Cryle, P. M. (2006). The open secret: Hiding and revealing sexuality in the roman de moeurs (1880-1905). Romanic Review, 97 (2), 185-200. doi: 10.1215/26885220-97.2.185
Cryle, Peter (2006). Foretelling pathology: The poetics of prognosis. French Cultural Studies, 17 (1), 107-122. doi: 10.1177/0957155806060799
Cryle, P. M. (2006). Charlatanism in the 'age of reason'. Cultural and Social History: The Journal of the Social History Society, 3 (3), 243-249. doi: 10.1191/1478003806cs060ed
Cryle, P. (2005). 'Desiring the dead': Necrophilia and nineteenth-century French literature. Modern Language Review, 100, 505-506.
Cryle, P. M. (2004). Love and epistemology in French fiction of the Fin-de-Siecle search of the pathological unknown. Dix-Neuf. Journal of the Society of Dix-Neuvimistes, 3, 55-74.
Cryle, Peter (2004). Séduction et dialogue dans l’oeuvre de Crébillon. By Genevieve Salvan. Paris, Champion, 378 pp.. French Studies, 58 (1), 111-112. doi: 10.1093/fs/58.1.111
Cryle, P. (2003). Review of: Sade: From materialism to pornography. Modern Language Review, 98 (4), 992-993. doi: 10.2307/3737977
Cryle, Peter (2003). Sade, ou la tentation totalitaire: etude sur l'anthropologie litteraire dans 'La Nouvelle Justine'et 'L'Histoire de Juliette'. By Svein-Eirik Fauskevag.. Modern Language Review, 98 (4), 990-992. doi: 10.2307/3737976
Cryle, Peter (2003). Sade: The Libertine Novels. By John Phillips.. Modern Language Review, 98 (4), 990-992. doi: 10.2307/3737976
Cryle, P. M. (2003). Le Marbre feminin. Revue d'Histoire des Sciences Humaines (271), 147-155.
Cryle, P. (2003). Petite-maitrise: the ethics of libertine foppery. L'Esprit Createur, 43 (4 (Winter)), 62-72. doi: 10.1353/esp.2010.0247
Cryle, P. M. (2003). Research in French: Responding to the imperatives of curriculum. AUMLA: Journal of The Australasian Universities Language And Literature Association, 100 (November), 29-40. doi: 10.1179/aulla.2003.100.1.005
Cryle, P. (2001). The errors of desire: 18th century sentimental novels. French Studies, 55 (2), 250-251. doi: 10.1093/fs/55.2.250
Cryle, P. (2000). Beyond the canonical Sade. Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory, 23 (1), 15-25. doi: 10.3366/para.2000.23.1.15
Cryle, P. M. (2000). Making room for women in pornographic writing of the early nineteenth century: Entre chien et loup, by Felicite de Choiseul-Meuse. Monash Romance Studies (6: Women Seeking Expression), 11-23.
Cryle, P. (2000). Works of the flesh: Thematic study of erotic literature. AUMLA: Journal of The Australasian Universities Language And Literature Association (93), 125-127.
Cryle, P. M. (2000). Gaetan Brulotte. Oeuvres de chair: figures du discours erotique. Quebec: L'Harmattan, Les Presses de l'Universite Laval, 1998. AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association (93), 125-127.
Cryle, P. M. (2000). Le detour par l'autre: Sur des representations de "Francais" dans quelques publicites australiennes. Mots: Les Langages du Politique (64), 39-54.
Cryle, P. M. (2000). (Review) Des bommes, des femmes et des cboses: langages de I'objet dans le roman de Balzac a Proust. By Juliette Frolich. (Essais et savoirs). Saint-Denis, Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1997. 191 pp. Pb 130 F.. French Studies, 53 (3), 95-96. doi: 10.1093/fs/LIV.1.95
Cryle, P. (2000). The structure of division: Objectivity and myth in Roger Martin du Gard's Les 'Thibault'. French Studies, 54 (3), 396-397. doi: 10.1093/fs/54.3.396
Cryle, P. M. (1999). Etat present de la critique sadienne. Dix-Huitieme Siecle (31), 507-524.
Cryle, P. (1998). Locating popular culture. Australian Journal of French Studies, 35 (1), 20-31. doi: 10.3828/ajfs.35.1.20
Cryle, P. (1998). The substance of desire: Towards a thematic history of the aphrodisiac in nineteenth-century French fiction. Nottingham French Studies, 37 (1), 27-49.
Cryle, P. (1998). Breaking the furniture in erotic narrative: Towards a history of desire (18th and 19th century French literature). French Studies, 52 (4), 409-424. doi: 10.1093/fs/52.4.409
Conference Papers
Cryle, Peter (2004). Le savoir-lire libertin. La Litterature 'Libertine' au XVIIIe Siecle: Existe-t-il un Genre Libertin?, Grenoble, France, 26-28 September 2002. Paris, France: Desjonqueres.
Cryle, P. M. (2001). Detouring via the other: Representations of Frenchness in some Australian advertisements. Mapping the Territory, Leeds/Leeds Metropoligan University, December 1999. Glasgow, U.K.: University of Glasgow French and German Publications.
Reference Entries
Cryle, P. M. (2006). Choiseul-Meuse, Felicite de.
Cryle, P. M. (2006). Aphrodisiacs.