Description
In this authoritative and accessible account of French literature, sixteen essays by leading specialists offer provocative insights into French literary culture, its genres, movements, themes, and historic turning points, including the cultural and linguistic challenges of today's multi-ethnic France. The French have, over the centuries, invented and reinvented writing, from the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes to Montaigne's Essays, which gave the world a new literary form and a new standard for writing about personal thought and experience; from the highly polished tragedies of French classicism to the satirical novels of the Enlightenment; from Proust's explorations of social and sexual mores to the 'New Novel' of the late twentieth century; and from Baudelaire's urban poetry to today's poetic experiments with sound and typography. The broad scope of this Companion, which goes beyond individual authors or periods, enables a deeper appreciation for the distinctive literature of France.
Table of Contents
Chronology; Introduction John D. Lyons; 1. Romance, roman, and novel Karen Sullivan; 2. Joan of Arc and the literary imagination Deborah McGrady; 3. Poetry and modernity Marc Bizer; 4. The graphic imagination and the printed page Tom Conley; 5. Tragedy and fear John D. Lyons; 6. Galant culture Elizabeth C. Goldsmith; 7. Varieties of doubt in early modern writing Michael Moriarty; 8. Nature and enlightenment Caroline Warman; 9. Nostalgia and the creation of the past Rosemary Lloyd; 10. Exoticism and colonialism Jennifer Yee; 11. Poetic experimentation Carrie J. Noland; 12. The renewal of narrative in the wake of Proust Edward J. Hughes; 13. French literature as world literature Charles Forsdick; 14. Literature and sex Elisabeth Ladenson; 15. The literary-philosophical essay Ian James; 16. The novel in the new millennium Warren Motte; Guide to further reading.
