A history of French literature : from Chanson de geste to cinema / David Coward.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coward, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French literature--History and criticism.

French literature.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 606 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, 2002.

Summary:

In its scope and inclusiveness, this ambitious volume is far more than a history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day, though it is that too. It is a book that fully registers the impact of postmodern thought upon our understanding of what we mean by 'literature' and what historically has been meant by the term. David Coward's book allows us to see the diverse wealth of French literature, which has been extended and enriched by new Francophone writing in Europe, Canada, the West Indies and North and Sub-Saharan Africa. His history is set in the widest cultural context and links the development of literature to the mentalities and social conditions which produced it.

Coward takes us beyond 'literature' into the world of the best-seller and, beyond words, to graphic fiction and cinema. In the course of his account he maps the rise of the intellectual, from the time of Dreyfus to the divisions of the 1930s, from the Existentialists to the Post-Structuralists and beyond, and in so doing charts a progression from literary doctrine to critical theory.

Whatever the subject in hand, from the 'feminism' of the Middle Ages to the Feminism of the present, from the 'modernism' of the fifteenth century to the Modernism we associate with Proust and his contemporaries, Coward proves to be a fascinating and inspiring guide. Topics, themes and genres are clearly signposted so that the reader may follow the evolution of theatre, poetry or fiction as well as wider matters such as censorship and writers' rewards. The text is complemented by a fully comprehensive and reader-friendly index.

Contents:

1 The Middle Ages 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

2 The Renaissance 32

The Age of Francois I 32

The restitution of letters and the renewal of faith 34

Poetry 39

Prose 44

The Generation of the Pleiade 50

The defence of the language 50

The new poetics and the Pleiade 53

Theatre 61

Literature during the Wars of Religion 65

Poetry 67

Prose 70

3 The Classical Age 79

Writers and Their Public 80

The Elaboration of the Classical Ideal 85

The Rise of Rationalism 90

Literature 96

Poetry 96

Fiction 100

Theatre 106

The Crisis of Confidence 122

The Legacy of Classicism 129

4 The Age of Enlightenment 131

Writers and Their Public 133

The Rise of the 'Philosophic' Spirit 138

The knowledge revolution 139

The cosmopolitan connection 141

Science, religion and the material world 142

The Social Programme of the Enlightenment 145

Literature 160

Poetry 161

Theatre 164

Prose writing 173

Fiction 179

Literature and the Revolution (1789-99) 194

5 The Nineteenth Century 198

Writers and Their Public 199

Movements and Schools 206

Intellectual currents 206

Aesthetic doctrines 216

Schools of poetry 220

Schools of fiction 226

Literature 232

Poetry 232

Theatre 244

The novel 264

The roman feuilleton and the growth of popular fiction 288

6 The Twentieth Century 298

Writers and Their Public 299

From Literary Doctrine to Critical Theory 307

To 1914 307

Between the wars 308

Since 1940 310

The Rise of the Intellectual 316

From Dreyfus to the Great War 316

The interwar years 319

Defeat, Occupation and Liberation 322

'L'Epuration' and after 322

The 1950s 325

1962-68 327

1968-80 329

Since 1980 334

Literature 339

Poetry 339

Theatre 353

Fiction 383

Short Fiction 407

7 Beyond Imagination, Gender and the Metropole 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

The beginnings to 1914 468

Humour since 1900 473

Regional Literature 482

The politics of regionalism 483

Literature to 1914 486

1918-45 491

Since 1940 496

The Roman Policier 503

9 Beyond Words 518

The Roman-photo: Graphic Fiction 519

La Bande Dessinee 523

The Cinema 533.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [560]-565) and index.

ISBN:

0631167587

OCLC:

47718074