Joie de vivre in French literature and culture : essays in honour of Michael Freeman / edited by Susan Harrow and Timothy Unwin.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Freeman, Mike (Michael)

Harrow, Susan.

Unwin, Timothy A.

Series:

Faux titre ; no. 331.

Faux titre ; 331

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French literature--History and criticism.

French literature.

France--Civilization.

France.

Freeman, Mike (Michael).

Freeman, Mike.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam [Netherlands] ; New York : Rodopi, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The apparent self-sufficiency of joie de vivre means that, despite the widespread use of the phrase since the late nineteenth century, the concept has rarely been explored critically. Joie de vivre does not readily surrender itself to examination, for it is in a sense too busy being what it is. However, as the essays in this collection reveal, joie de vivre can be as complex and variable a state as the more negative emotions or experiences that art and literature habitually evoke. This volume provides an urgently needed study of an intriguing and under-explored area of French literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era. While the range and content of contributions embraces linguistics, literature, art, sport and politics, the starting point is, like that of the term joie de vivre itself, in French language and culture. This volume will be of special interest to researchers across the full range of French studies, from literature and language to cultural studies. It will be of direct appeal to specialist readers, university libraries, graduate and undergraduate students, and general readers with a lively interest in French literature and culture of the medieval, early modern and broad modern periods. This book’s fresh perspectives on the theme of joie de vivre and its relation to questions of privacy, contemplation, voyeurism, feasting and nationhood will also be of relevance to researchers in comparative and cognate disciplines.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Notes on contributors

Michael Freeman: joie de vivre, joies du livre / Susan Harrow and Timothy Unwin Bristol

Introduction / Susan Harrow and Timothy Unwin

The joys of Romance / Rodney Sampson

‘Balades and Rondeaux nouueaux fort ioyeulx’: joie de vivre in a Renaissance miscellany / Jane H.M. Taylor

Joie de vivre in Des Périers’s Nouvelles Récréations et joyeux devis / John Parkin

Comic interludes in French Renaissance prose romance: Aldéno’s amours in Gerard d’Euphrate (1549) / Richard Cooper

Melons and wine: Montaigne and joie de vivre in Renaissance France / Stephen Bamforth

‘Une vie douce, heureuse et amiable’: a Christian joie de vivre in Saint François de Sales / Richard Parish

‘Le carnaval autorise cela’: cruelty and joie de vivre in the dénouements of the comédie-ballet / Edward Forman

‘I told you I was ill’: joie de vivre and joie de mourir in Le Malade imaginaire / Noël Peacock

The state of happiness? Ancient Sparta and the French Enlightenment / Haydn Mason

Poetry and the discourse of happiness in nineteenth-century France: the case of Vigny / Patrick O’Donovan

‘Baisez-moi, belle Juju!’: Victor Hugo and the joy of Juliette / Bradley Stephens

Mallarmé et Bachelard: la rêverie des mots / Hélène Stafford

Ensor’s hyperbolic joie de vivre / Richard Hobbs

Joie de vivre and the will to win in the literature of cycling / Edward Nye

The joy of specs: the power of the gaze in the novels of Sébastien Japrisot / Martin Hurcombe

Rejoicing in the Other: France, England and the case of Major Thompson / Gino Raymond

Joie de vivre: the afterlife of a phrase / Alison Finch

Michael Freeman: list of major publications

Index of names.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-59435-4

9786612594359

90-420-2896-3

1-4416-1693-4

OCLC:

430229593

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789042028968 DOI