Dr John McKeane

With a disciplinary background in French, I do research on the interactions between literature and philosophy. The figures on whose work I have published include Maurice Blanchot, Sarah Kofman, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Emmanuel Levinas, Roland Barthes, Barbara Cassin, and Alexandre Kojève. I am also interested in Emmanuel Carrère.

My latest book is Sarah Kofman and Ancient Thought: Learning to Live at Last (OUP, 2026 or 2027). It explores the work of this overlooked member of the ‘philosophie en effet’ group and unpacks her post-Nietzschean readings of ancient thought, from tragedy to Plato by way of the pre-Socratics, Stoicism and more.

I am also the author of Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: (Un)timely Meditations (2015), and I have co-edited two collective volumes, Blanchot romantique (2010) and Sarah Kofman and the Relief of Philosophy (2021).

Having held lectureships at four British universities, as well as fellowships in France, Italy, and the US, I am interested in educational institutions – this led to an article on pedagogy and the French baccalaureate.

I have translated four books, including Christophe Bident’s ambitious 632-page Maurice Blanchot: a Critical Biography (2018), as well as publishing on translation theory.

My next research project has two facets. The first is to build on my work on psychoanalysis, the tragic, and philosophy as therapy to look at human-plant interactions. I am interested in the plant humanities (especially plant aesthetics and plant therapy). The second facet relates more specifically to French culture and society, looking at the importance of agriculture for national identity but also at alternative agriculture as a way of life.