Description
Book SynopsisThis magnificent volume provides a complete history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day, taking us beyond traditional definitions of ''literature'' into the world of the best-seller and, beyond words, to graphic fiction and cinema.
- Presents a definitive history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day.
- Incorporates coverage of Francophone writing in Europe, Canada, the West Indies and North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Links the development of literature to the mentalities and social conditions which produced it.
- Takes us beyond literature to study graphic fiction, cinema and the bestseller.
- Maps the rise of the Intellectual, and in so doing charts a progression from literary doctrine to critical theory.
Trade Review"David Coward's new
History is heroically comprehensive and shrewdly concise, generously accommodating in its definition of the subject, yet wisely discriminating in its detailed assessments. As the new millennium gets under way, it will surely be not only an essential guide but a lasting source of renewable pleasure for anyone interested in the literature and culture of France
."
Times Literary Supplement
"In its breadth, depth, concision and sophistication of analysis, this book is an exceptional achievement. Neglecting neither Francophone nor gender-specific literature, this single-volume history of a thousand years of French writing and culture is a tour de force." Choice
"Covering in varying depth everything down to modern gay, regional, and francophone writing, this approachable and clearly written book can be read front to back or a given strand can be followed through by moving through the headings classifying genres: theatre, poetry, etc." Modern Language Review
"[...] Coward comes into his element, and provides an invaluable synthesis of where French is now and where it is going. A whole raft of mainstream and marginal writing is presented and evaluated, and it is here that those of us who teach French find ourselves pedagogically the most deeply in Coward's debt." The Times Higher Education Supplement
"The concise discussion of structuralism, poststructuralism, postmodernism, and deconstruction will be of use to many students of literature." World Literature Today
Table of ContentsPreface xxii
1 THE MIDDLE AGES 1
Introduction 1
Hagiography 6
The chanson de geste 7
Lyric poetry to Rutebeuf 10
Romance 12
Comic realism 17
The literature of devotion, moral reflection and information 19
Learning and ideas 22
Theatre 23
Later lyric poetry 25
Fifteenth-century ‘modernism’ 26
Conclusion 30
2 THE RENAISSANCE 32
The Age of François I 32
The Generation of the Pléiade 50
Literature during the Wars of Religion 65
3 THE CLASSICAL AGE 79
Writers and Their Public 80
The Elaboration of the Classical Ideal 85
The Rise of Rationalism 90
Literature 96
The Crisis of Confidence 122
4 THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT 131
Introduction 131
Writers and Their Public 133
The Rise of the ‘Philosophic’ Spirit 138
The Social Programme of the Enlightenment 145
Literature 160
Literature and the Revolution (1789–99) 194
5 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 198
Introduction 198
Writers and Their Public 199
Movements and Schools 206
Literature 232
6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 298
Writers and Their Public 299
From Literary Doctrine to Critical Theory 307
The Rise of the Intellectual 316
Literature 339
7 BEYOND IMAGINATION, GENDER AND THE MÉTROPOLE 410
Biography 411
Autobiography 412
Women’s Writing 417
Gay Writing 424
Francophone Writing 426
8 BEYOND ‘LITERATURE’ 446
The Best-seller 447
French Humorous Writing 467
Regional Literature 482
The Roman Policier 503
9 BEYOND WORDS 518
The Roman-photo: Graphic Fiction 519
La Bande Dessinée 523
The Cinema 533
Conclusion 558
Bibliography 560
Index 566
