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A New History of French Literature
Contributor(s): Hollier, Denis (Editor)
ISBN: 0674615662     ISBN-13: 9780674615663
Publisher: Harvard University Press
OUR PRICE:   $49.50  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: August 1998
Qty:
Annotation:

This splendid introduction to French literature from 842 A.D. to the present decade is the most imaginative single-volume guide to the French literary tradition available in English.

Conceived for the general reader, this volume presents French literature not as a simple inventory of authors or titles, but rather as a historical and cultural field viewed from a wide array of contemporary critical perspectives. The book consists of 164 essays by American and European scholars, and covers the history of French literature from 842 to 1989.

Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | European - French
- Reference
- History | Europe - France
Dewey: 840.9
LCCN: 95139611
Physical Information: 2.08" H x 6.54" W x 10.08" (3.83 lbs) 1200 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - French
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

Designed for the general reader, this splendid introduction to French literature from 842 A.D.--the date of the earliest surviving document in any Romance language--to the present decade is the most compact and imaginative single-volume guide available in English to the French literary tradition. In fact, no comparable work exists in either language. It is not the customary inventory of authors and titles but rather a collection of wide-angled views of historical and cultural phenomena. It sets before us writers, public figures, criminals, saints, and monarchs, as well as religious, cultural, and social revolutions. It gives us books, paintings, public monuments, even TV shows.

Written by 164 American and European specialists, the essays are introduced by date and arranged in chronological order, but here ends the book's resemblance to the usual history of literature. Each date is followed by a headline evoking an event that indicates the chronological point of departure. Usually the event is literary--the publication of an original work, a journal, a translation, the first performance of a play, the death of an author--but some events are literary only in terms of their repercussions and resonances. Essays devoted to a genre exist alongside essays devoted to one book, institutions are presented side by side with literary movements, and large surveys appear next to detailed discussions of specific landmarks.

No article is limited to the "life and works" of a single author. Proust, for example, appears through various lenses: fleetingly, in 1701, apropos of Antoine Galland's translation of The Thousand and One Nights; in 1898, in connection with the Dreyfus Affair; in 1905, on the occasion of the law on the separation of church and state; in 1911, in relation to Gide and their different treatments of homosexuality; and at his death in 1922.

Without attempting to cover every author, work, and cultural development since the Serments de Strasbourg in 842, this history succeeds in being both informative and critical about the more than 1,000 years it describes. The contributors offer us a chance to appreciate not only French culture but also the major critical positions in literary studies today. A New History of French Literature will be essential reading for all engaged in the study of French culture and for all who are interested in it. It is an authoritative, lively, and readable volume.


Contributor Bio(s): Hollier, Denis: - Denis Hollier is Chairman of the Department of French at Yale University. He is the author of many books, including works on Sartre and Bataille.