Philippe Lane and Michael Worton (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This book draws together a range of scholars to examine the state of French Studies in the UK, taking account of the variety of factors that have made the discipline what it is. The book looks ahead ...
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This book draws together a range of scholars to examine the state of French Studies in the UK, taking account of the variety of factors that have made the discipline what it is. The book looks ahead to the place of French Studies in a world that is increasingly interdisciplinary, and where student demands, new technologies and transnational education are changing the ways in which we learn, teach, research and assess.Less
This book draws together a range of scholars to examine the state of French Studies in the UK, taking account of the variety of factors that have made the discipline what it is. The book looks ahead to the place of French Studies in a world that is increasingly interdisciplinary, and where student demands, new technologies and transnational education are changing the ways in which we learn, teach, research and assess.
David Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.019
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter considers the specific challenge posed to previous conceptions of French Studies by the field's engagement with the specific ‘transnational’ form of questioning involved in the ...
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This chapter considers the specific challenge posed to previous conceptions of French Studies by the field's engagement with the specific ‘transnational’ form of questioning involved in the development of postcolonial teaching and research. It explores whether the development of francophone postcolonial studies represents the demise or the rebirth of the French department. It suggests that while it is possible that French Studies engagement with the postcolonial will open up exciting research trajectories, changes in teaching and the curriculum may be harder to achieve in some institutions.Less
This chapter considers the specific challenge posed to previous conceptions of French Studies by the field's engagement with the specific ‘transnational’ form of questioning involved in the development of postcolonial teaching and research. It explores whether the development of francophone postcolonial studies represents the demise or the rebirth of the French department. It suggests that while it is possible that French Studies engagement with the postcolonial will open up exciting research trajectories, changes in teaching and the curriculum may be harder to achieve in some institutions.
Charles Forsdick
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter considers the reasons why modern languages continue to be seen as more of an undergraduate subject than many other humanities disciplines. It considers the associated risks faced by ...
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This chapter considers the reasons why modern languages continue to be seen as more of an undergraduate subject than many other humanities disciplines. It considers the associated risks faced by modern languages, specifically by French Studies, as a result of various practicalities: as with other humanities subjects, the potential for grant capture among modern linguists can never compete with STEM areas; unlike many other humanities disciplines, modern languages have declined at GCSE and A Level; and practitioners in the field are challenged, moreover, to be particularly innovative when it comes to attracting overseas students who are more inclined to study in countries where target languages are spoken and where fees are often a fraction of those charged in the English-speaking world.Less
This chapter considers the reasons why modern languages continue to be seen as more of an undergraduate subject than many other humanities disciplines. It considers the associated risks faced by modern languages, specifically by French Studies, as a result of various practicalities: as with other humanities subjects, the potential for grant capture among modern linguists can never compete with STEM areas; unlike many other humanities disciplines, modern languages have declined at GCSE and A Level; and practitioners in the field are challenged, moreover, to be particularly innovative when it comes to attracting overseas students who are more inclined to study in countries where target languages are spoken and where fees are often a fraction of those charged in the English-speaking world.
Diana Holmes
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter provides an overview of the history of French Studies in the UK. It shows that French established itself in the first two decades of the twentieth century as an intellectually ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the history of French Studies in the UK. It shows that French established itself in the first two decades of the twentieth century as an intellectually respectable humanities discipline, within which language was central not only as a skill, but as an object of study. Thereafter, French was present in just about all universities (and, between the late 1960s and 1992, polytechnics), until very recently. It argues that the intellectual project of French Studies has diversified and been enriched by new disciplinary perspectives and by challenges to certain hegemonic assumptions and exclusions that inform French culture itself, postcolonial and feminist perspectives being the most obvious examples.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the history of French Studies in the UK. It shows that French established itself in the first two decades of the twentieth century as an intellectually respectable humanities discipline, within which language was central not only as a skill, but as an object of study. Thereafter, French was present in just about all universities (and, between the late 1960s and 1992, polytechnics), until very recently. It argues that the intellectual project of French Studies has diversified and been enriched by new disciplinary perspectives and by challenges to certain hegemonic assumptions and exclusions that inform French culture itself, postcolonial and feminist perspectives being the most obvious examples.
Emma Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
French Studies in the UK has responded rather quickly to queer theory and its questioning of sexuality compared to related disciplines in France, in part through increased dialogue with French ...
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French Studies in the UK has responded rather quickly to queer theory and its questioning of sexuality compared to related disciplines in France, in part through increased dialogue with French Studies in the US, and in part through the productive interaction between academia and political activism in the wake of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. This chapter examines how this work looks beyond binaries of straight and queer, while respecting diversity and political positioning, as well as the ways in which such work makes a concerted case for the seriousness and impact of engagement with discourses of sexuality in our understanding of narrative and interpretation, of ethics and the relation to the other, of identity politics, and of what it means to be human. It is argued that that the treatment of these questions in literary and cultural production in French has been significantly critiqued and illuminated in UK French Studies.Less
French Studies in the UK has responded rather quickly to queer theory and its questioning of sexuality compared to related disciplines in France, in part through increased dialogue with French Studies in the US, and in part through the productive interaction between academia and political activism in the wake of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. This chapter examines how this work looks beyond binaries of straight and queer, while respecting diversity and political positioning, as well as the ways in which such work makes a concerted case for the seriousness and impact of engagement with discourses of sexuality in our understanding of narrative and interpretation, of ethics and the relation to the other, of identity politics, and of what it means to be human. It is argued that that the treatment of these questions in literary and cultural production in French has been significantly critiqued and illuminated in UK French Studies.
Wendy Ayres-Bennett, Kate Beeching, Pierre Larrivée, and Florence Myles
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.014
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses the research and teaching of French linguistics in UK higher education institutions. It covers the history of the French language; sociolinguistics; phonology and syntax; ...
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This chapter discusses the research and teaching of French linguistics in UK higher education institutions. It covers the history of the French language; sociolinguistics; phonology and syntax; pragmatics; research on French second language acquisition; research outside French departments; the marriage of European and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ intellectual traditions; and the international impact of UK French linguistics and its subject associations.Less
This chapter discusses the research and teaching of French linguistics in UK higher education institutions. It covers the history of the French language; sociolinguistics; phonology and syntax; pragmatics; research on French second language acquisition; research outside French departments; the marriage of European and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ intellectual traditions; and the international impact of UK French linguistics and its subject associations.
Emmanuel Godin and Tony Chafer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.018
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses the development of a new type of language degree by the staff of the School of Languages and Area Studies (SLAS) at Portsmouth Polytechnic. In the 1970s, the traditional model ...
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This chapter discusses the development of a new type of language degree by the staff of the School of Languages and Area Studies (SLAS) at Portsmouth Polytechnic. In the 1970s, the traditional model was the ‘lang and lit’ degree programme. Students who wanted to study languages were more or less obliged to combine the study of their chosen language(s) with the study of (mostly) the literary classics of that country. Portsmouth along with a small number of other UK higher education institutions sought to break away from the traditional model and develop a new type of language degree — the ‘language and area studies’ degree programme — that would combine language study with the study of the history, politics, economy, society, and culture of the country, or countries, in question. The new approach was to be resolutely multi-disciplinary and was essentially, but not exclusively, rooted in the social sciences.Less
This chapter discusses the development of a new type of language degree by the staff of the School of Languages and Area Studies (SLAS) at Portsmouth Polytechnic. In the 1970s, the traditional model was the ‘lang and lit’ degree programme. Students who wanted to study languages were more or less obliged to combine the study of their chosen language(s) with the study of (mostly) the literary classics of that country. Portsmouth along with a small number of other UK higher education institutions sought to break away from the traditional model and develop a new type of language degree — the ‘language and area studies’ degree programme — that would combine language study with the study of the history, politics, economy, society, and culture of the country, or countries, in question. The new approach was to be resolutely multi-disciplinary and was essentially, but not exclusively, rooted in the social sciences.
Ruth Bush
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781381953
- eISBN:
- 9781786945181
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381953.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Publishing Africa in French provides a critical analysis of the global dynamics and cultural and publishing history of French and African literature. It focuses on French readership and the French ...
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Publishing Africa in French provides a critical analysis of the global dynamics and cultural and publishing history of French and African literature. It focuses on French readership and the French literary-political sphere, and engages with issues of authorial authenticity, literary value, and author autonomy. The study is built on careful documentations of the pre- and post-publication process, and explores the relentless interweaving of ideas expressed in literary form, their institutional contexts and underlying human relationships, and asks: Who writes about Africa and who is Africa written for? The book is split into two sections, ‘Institutions’ and ‘Mediations’. The first part of the book, ‘Institutions’, situates three institutions of particular significance, the publishing houses of Le Seuil and Présence Africaine, and the Association nationale des écrivains de la mer et de l’outre-mer. ‘Mediations’, the second section of the book, concludes with a consideration on how institutional structures work into or against the literary texture of selected publications, and examines readers’ reports and editorial revision; the use of pseudonyms; the development of named collections and the process of literary translation from English. Publishing Africa in French aims to bring book-historical principles to bear on a decisive period in French literary history and foregrounds the influencing factors on literary expression and its material impressions in the period of decolonization.Less
Publishing Africa in French provides a critical analysis of the global dynamics and cultural and publishing history of French and African literature. It focuses on French readership and the French literary-political sphere, and engages with issues of authorial authenticity, literary value, and author autonomy. The study is built on careful documentations of the pre- and post-publication process, and explores the relentless interweaving of ideas expressed in literary form, their institutional contexts and underlying human relationships, and asks: Who writes about Africa and who is Africa written for? The book is split into two sections, ‘Institutions’ and ‘Mediations’. The first part of the book, ‘Institutions’, situates three institutions of particular significance, the publishing houses of Le Seuil and Présence Africaine, and the Association nationale des écrivains de la mer et de l’outre-mer. ‘Mediations’, the second section of the book, concludes with a consideration on how institutional structures work into or against the literary texture of selected publications, and examines readers’ reports and editorial revision; the use of pseudonyms; the development of named collections and the process of literary translation from English. Publishing Africa in French aims to bring book-historical principles to bear on a decisive period in French literary history and foregrounds the influencing factors on literary expression and its material impressions in the period of decolonization.
Celia Britton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781846311376
- eISBN:
- 9781786945303
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846311376.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction seeks to better understand the concept of community as a central and problematic issue in French Caribbean literature. The study examines ...
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The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction seeks to better understand the concept of community as a central and problematic issue in French Caribbean literature. The study examines representations of community in seven French Caribbean novels, including Jacques Roumain’s Gouverneurs de la rosée, Edouard Glissant’s Le Quatrième Siècle, Simone Schwarz-Bart’s Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle, Vincent Placoly’s L’Eau-de-mort guildive, Patrick Chamoiseau’s Texaco, Daniel Maximin’s L’Ile et une nuit, and Maryse Condé’s Desirada. Each novel is discussed in chronological order, demonstrating a progressive move away from the ‘closed’ community towards a newer sense of an ‘open’ community. In this study, Britton offers an understanding of the postcolonial societies of the Caribbean by looking at French Caribbean literature’s role in the creation of community. The seven novels analysed reveal a correlation between a tightly knit, purposeful community and a linear narrative that ends in definitive resolution, and, conversely, between a dispersed or heterogeneous community and a narrative structure that avoids linearity and closure.Less
The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction seeks to better understand the concept of community as a central and problematic issue in French Caribbean literature. The study examines representations of community in seven French Caribbean novels, including Jacques Roumain’s Gouverneurs de la rosée, Edouard Glissant’s Le Quatrième Siècle, Simone Schwarz-Bart’s Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle, Vincent Placoly’s L’Eau-de-mort guildive, Patrick Chamoiseau’s Texaco, Daniel Maximin’s L’Ile et une nuit, and Maryse Condé’s Desirada. Each novel is discussed in chronological order, demonstrating a progressive move away from the ‘closed’ community towards a newer sense of an ‘open’ community. In this study, Britton offers an understanding of the postcolonial societies of the Caribbean by looking at French Caribbean literature’s role in the creation of community. The seven novels analysed reveal a correlation between a tightly knit, purposeful community and a linear narrative that ends in definitive resolution, and, conversely, between a dispersed or heterogeneous community and a narrative structure that avoids linearity and closure.
Nicola Cooper, Martin Hurcombe, and Debra Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.020
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines how the study of France has played a pivotal role in the development of ‘war and culture studies’ in the UK. It first considers more generally the ‘cultural turn’ in war studies ...
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This chapter examines how the study of France has played a pivotal role in the development of ‘war and culture studies’ in the UK. It first considers more generally the ‘cultural turn’ in war studies in recent decades, and then looks specifically at the work of the Group for War and Culture Studies (GWACS) and its contributing scholars in developing a particular approach to the relationship between war and culture during conflict and its aftermath in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It asks: Why should the study of war be of such interest to scholars in the humanities and to students and researchers in French and Francophone Studies in particular?Less
This chapter examines how the study of France has played a pivotal role in the development of ‘war and culture studies’ in the UK. It first considers more generally the ‘cultural turn’ in war studies in recent decades, and then looks specifically at the work of the Group for War and Culture Studies (GWACS) and its contributing scholars in developing a particular approach to the relationship between war and culture during conflict and its aftermath in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It asks: Why should the study of war be of such interest to scholars in the humanities and to students and researchers in French and Francophone Studies in particular?
Joseph Mai
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719096471
- eISBN:
- 9781526124104
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719096471.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book provides a comprehensive account of Robert Guédiguian’s numerous films since 1980, combining stylistic analyses with historical, political, and generic context. More importantly, it makes ...
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This book provides a comprehensive account of Robert Guédiguian’s numerous films since 1980, combining stylistic analyses with historical, political, and generic context. More importantly, it makes the case that Guédiguian’s work represents one of the most discretely original but radical projects of contemporary French cinema: to make politically committed films with friends, predominately in a local space, over a long period of time. The book starts with a consideration of the philosophy of friendship and its relation to politics, relation, difference, time, and space. It concentrates on Guédiguian’s early life in the Estaque neighbourhood of Marseilles, where he became politically active and developed the friendships that would continue in his filmmaking, as well as Guédiguian’s disillusionment with the Communist Party. It then examines the political pessimism of the 1980s through Guédiguian’s four early films. The book examines the turn toward local activism and utopianism in the 1990s, and follows Guédiguian’s work as it spreads into diverse experimentation with genres and registers in more recent work. It emphasises Guédiguian’s political assessments and his frequent meditations on history, violence, and utopia. But it returns consistently to the underlying themes of friendship, and thus intervenes at the crossroads of affect, politics, philosophy, and art.Less
This book provides a comprehensive account of Robert Guédiguian’s numerous films since 1980, combining stylistic analyses with historical, political, and generic context. More importantly, it makes the case that Guédiguian’s work represents one of the most discretely original but radical projects of contemporary French cinema: to make politically committed films with friends, predominately in a local space, over a long period of time. The book starts with a consideration of the philosophy of friendship and its relation to politics, relation, difference, time, and space. It concentrates on Guédiguian’s early life in the Estaque neighbourhood of Marseilles, where he became politically active and developed the friendships that would continue in his filmmaking, as well as Guédiguian’s disillusionment with the Communist Party. It then examines the political pessimism of the 1980s through Guédiguian’s four early films. The book examines the turn toward local activism and utopianism in the 1990s, and follows Guédiguian’s work as it spreads into diverse experimentation with genres and registers in more recent work. It emphasises Guédiguian’s political assessments and his frequent meditations on history, violence, and utopia. But it returns consistently to the underlying themes of friendship, and thus intervenes at the crossroads of affect, politics, philosophy, and art.
Lia Brozgal and Sara Kippur (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382639
- eISBN:
- 9781786945198
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382639.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Being Contemporary emerges from a sense of critical urgency to probe the notion of ‘the contemporary’, and the place of the contemporary critic, in French literary and cultural studies today. ...
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Being Contemporary emerges from a sense of critical urgency to probe the notion of ‘the contemporary’, and the place of the contemporary critic, in French literary and cultural studies today. Consisting of twenty-two critical essays written by scholars in the field of French studies, the volume offers a sustained reflection on the status of the contemporary in French culture and takes a close look at the contemporary moment itself, as well as its concomitant discourse of crisis. The volume is split into four sections. The first section, ‘Conceptualizing the Contemporary’, offers distinct disciplinary approaches to broader questions about time, period, and categorization. The second section, ‘Contemporary Politics and French Thought’, brings broader theoretical inquiries to bear on the political sphere. The third section, ‘The Second World War and Vichy: Present Perspectives’, rearticulates the concern that the difficult negotiation of the past continues to haunt the present. The fourth section, ‘Writing the Contemporary Self’, features essays that probe the limits of autobiographical writing and self-representation. The fifth section, ‘Novel Rereadings’, offers new interpretations of monumental works of French fiction by literary giants such as Flaubert, Colette, Proust, Beckett. The sixth and final section, ‘Memory: Past and Future’, concludes with three different approaches to memory and representation. The essays in this volume, organised by theme rather than by definitions or denotations, encourage an expansive and elastic theoretical framework that charts a broad conceptual course and attempts to define what it means to ‘be contemporary’ both broadly and in terms of practice.Less
Being Contemporary emerges from a sense of critical urgency to probe the notion of ‘the contemporary’, and the place of the contemporary critic, in French literary and cultural studies today. Consisting of twenty-two critical essays written by scholars in the field of French studies, the volume offers a sustained reflection on the status of the contemporary in French culture and takes a close look at the contemporary moment itself, as well as its concomitant discourse of crisis. The volume is split into four sections. The first section, ‘Conceptualizing the Contemporary’, offers distinct disciplinary approaches to broader questions about time, period, and categorization. The second section, ‘Contemporary Politics and French Thought’, brings broader theoretical inquiries to bear on the political sphere. The third section, ‘The Second World War and Vichy: Present Perspectives’, rearticulates the concern that the difficult negotiation of the past continues to haunt the present. The fourth section, ‘Writing the Contemporary Self’, features essays that probe the limits of autobiographical writing and self-representation. The fifth section, ‘Novel Rereadings’, offers new interpretations of monumental works of French fiction by literary giants such as Flaubert, Colette, Proust, Beckett. The sixth and final section, ‘Memory: Past and Future’, concludes with three different approaches to memory and representation. The essays in this volume, organised by theme rather than by definitions or denotations, encourage an expansive and elastic theoretical framework that charts a broad conceptual course and attempts to define what it means to ‘be contemporary’ both broadly and in terms of practice.
Philippe Lane and Michael Worton
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This introductory chapter briefly sets out the book's purpose, which is to paint a picture of French Studies in the UK. It then cites the main challenge faced by modern language education, namely the ...
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This introductory chapter briefly sets out the book's purpose, which is to paint a picture of French Studies in the UK. It then cites the main challenge faced by modern language education, namely the lack of financial support from the government. It argues that the modern languages community must take a lead in advocacy, explaining and demonstrating why and how languages are vital to every higher education experience, be it in the UK or elsewhere in the world. In this work, French Studies has a particularly important leadership role to play, since French remains the most widely studied and researched language in the UK.Less
This introductory chapter briefly sets out the book's purpose, which is to paint a picture of French Studies in the UK. It then cites the main challenge faced by modern language education, namely the lack of financial support from the government. It argues that the modern languages community must take a lead in advocacy, explaining and demonstrating why and how languages are vital to every higher education experience, be it in the UK or elsewhere in the world. In this work, French Studies has a particularly important leadership role to play, since French remains the most widely studied and researched language in the UK.
William Burgwinkle
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.013
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter addresses the question of where French Studies should go in the current era of financial constraints and cut-backs. It argues that twenty-first-century French Studies must foreground ...
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This chapter addresses the question of where French Studies should go in the current era of financial constraints and cut-backs. It argues that twenty-first-century French Studies must foreground their interdisciplinary nature and remain open to examining and questioning their own inclusiveness. One suggestion is for French departments to turn their attention back to the origins of French identity and the French state, and simultaneously look at how those definitions have both limited and expanded that sense of identity and inclusiveness. In other words, they should look at the evolution of the notion of ‘Frenchness’ and how it has developed over the past 1000 years before turning to the contemporary, postcolonial period in which notions of Frenchness sometimes depend more on language use than on nationalism and on places far beyond the reach of Paris and the French state.Less
This chapter addresses the question of where French Studies should go in the current era of financial constraints and cut-backs. It argues that twenty-first-century French Studies must foreground their interdisciplinary nature and remain open to examining and questioning their own inclusiveness. One suggestion is for French departments to turn their attention back to the origins of French identity and the French state, and simultaneously look at how those definitions have both limited and expanded that sense of identity and inclusiveness. In other words, they should look at the evolution of the notion of ‘Frenchness’ and how it has developed over the past 1000 years before turning to the contemporary, postcolonial period in which notions of Frenchness sometimes depend more on language use than on nationalism and on places far beyond the reach of Paris and the French state.
Adrian Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter evaluates the capacity of French Studies to evolve in the near future. It considers the challenges for student and staff recruitment and curriculum development, as French loses its ...
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This chapter evaluates the capacity of French Studies to evolve in the near future. It considers the challenges for student and staff recruitment and curriculum development, as French loses its traditional preponderance within modern foreign languages in British education. It asks whether the discipline's diversity is threatened by larger processes of change, or enables UK departments to deal with those processes more effectively. It calls on university departments to take the French-speaking world and defamiliarise it, designing and delivering curricula that can inspire through the unexpected.Less
This chapter evaluates the capacity of French Studies to evolve in the near future. It considers the challenges for student and staff recruitment and curriculum development, as French loses its traditional preponderance within modern foreign languages in British education. It asks whether the discipline's diversity is threatened by larger processes of change, or enables UK departments to deal with those processes more effectively. It calls on university departments to take the French-speaking world and defamiliarise it, designing and delivering curricula that can inspire through the unexpected.
Gill Rye
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter focuses on the Contemporary Women's Writing in French (CWWF) seminar and research network, together with its related activities. Through its activities, events, and publication outputs, ...
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This chapter focuses on the Contemporary Women's Writing in French (CWWF) seminar and research network, together with its related activities. Through its activities, events, and publication outputs, CWWF has made a strong contribution to French Studies in the UK, and over the past ten years has helped raise the profile of contemporary women's writing in French in the anglophone world.Less
This chapter focuses on the Contemporary Women's Writing in French (CWWF) seminar and research network, together with its related activities. Through its activities, events, and publication outputs, CWWF has made a strong contribution to French Studies in the UK, and over the past ten years has helped raise the profile of contemporary women's writing in French in the anglophone world.
David Looseley
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.017
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the place of contemporary popular culture in French Studies. It considers the reasons behind UK French Studies's absence of engagement with popular culture, and cites a semantic ...
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This chapter examines the place of contemporary popular culture in French Studies. It considers the reasons behind UK French Studies's absence of engagement with popular culture, and cites a semantic misunderstanding between French Studies and cultural studies. It also suggests that contemporary popular culture lies outside the comfort zone of French scholars. The implication of high-cultural excellence enshrined in the word ‘literature’ has made them chary of station-bookstall ‘fiction’. They have happily studied art-house cinema for years, but have not felt quite so comfortable with popular film.Less
This chapter examines the place of contemporary popular culture in French Studies. It considers the reasons behind UK French Studies's absence of engagement with popular culture, and cites a semantic misunderstanding between French Studies and cultural studies. It also suggests that contemporary popular culture lies outside the comfort zone of French scholars. The implication of high-cultural excellence enshrined in the word ‘literature’ has made them chary of station-bookstall ‘fiction’. They have happily studied art-house cinema for years, but have not felt quite so comfortable with popular film.
Jane Hiddleston
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781846310317
- eISBN:
- 9781786945341
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846310317.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Assia Djebar: Out of Algeria is a book about expatriation, and the constant, necessary revisiting that follows. In the book, Hiddleston seeks to conceptualise Djebar’s progressive struggle and ...
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Assia Djebar: Out of Algeria is a book about expatriation, and the constant, necessary revisiting that follows. In the book, Hiddleston seeks to conceptualise Djebar’s progressive struggle and dissatisfaction with the notion of Algerian identity by referring to a number of contemporary theoretical concepts. Hiddleston’s analysis of the Djebar’s gradual and partial ‘expatriation’ is shaped heavily by the writer’s participation in crossroads between French philosophy, multiple Algerian traditions, and Anglo-American postcolonial theory. The study also situates Djebar’s thinking in recent French philosophy, making connections between her understanding of subjectivity and individuation and those produced by contemporary thinkers working in France.Less
Assia Djebar: Out of Algeria is a book about expatriation, and the constant, necessary revisiting that follows. In the book, Hiddleston seeks to conceptualise Djebar’s progressive struggle and dissatisfaction with the notion of Algerian identity by referring to a number of contemporary theoretical concepts. Hiddleston’s analysis of the Djebar’s gradual and partial ‘expatriation’ is shaped heavily by the writer’s participation in crossroads between French philosophy, multiple Algerian traditions, and Anglo-American postcolonial theory. The study also situates Djebar’s thinking in recent French philosophy, making connections between her understanding of subjectivity and individuation and those produced by contemporary thinkers working in France.
Alain Viala
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Oxford University's French subfaculty occupies a unique position in the network of French Studies in the UK: the size of the department, the collegiate structure of the university, and certain of its ...
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Oxford University's French subfaculty occupies a unique position in the network of French Studies in the UK: the size of the department, the collegiate structure of the university, and certain of its very specific traditions all contribute to this singularity. But in recent years this department has, like so many others, undergone a series of necessary changes. This chapter begins with overview of these changes, which serves as a background for two proposals for French Studies: one in favour of more French theatre plays and the other for a research programme based on the ‘Quarrels’ (of which the literary, artistic, intellectual, and cultural histories of France are rife with).Less
Oxford University's French subfaculty occupies a unique position in the network of French Studies in the UK: the size of the department, the collegiate structure of the university, and certain of its very specific traditions all contribute to this singularity. But in recent years this department has, like so many others, undergone a series of necessary changes. This chapter begins with overview of these changes, which serves as a background for two proposals for French Studies: one in favour of more French theatre plays and the other for a research programme based on the ‘Quarrels’ (of which the literary, artistic, intellectual, and cultural histories of France are rife with).
Michèle Cohen, Hilary Footitt, and Amy Wygant
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the notion that the study of French in the UK today is framed by a series of historical assumptions about the nature of the French language, and about the implications of ...
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This chapter examines the notion that the study of French in the UK today is framed by a series of historical assumptions about the nature of the French language, and about the implications of speaking French for individuals who are British-based. It explains how languages and conversation came to be critical sites for the representation, articulation, and production of national and gender identities in the eighteenth century.Less
This chapter examines the notion that the study of French in the UK today is framed by a series of historical assumptions about the nature of the French language, and about the implications of speaking French for individuals who are British-based. It explains how languages and conversation came to be critical sites for the representation, articulation, and production of national and gender identities in the eighteenth century.
