What's France got to do with it? : contemporary memoirs of Australians in France / Juliana De Nooy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Nooy, Juliana, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Australian literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Australian literature.

Literature, Modern--History and criticism.

Literature, Modern.

Social perception in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 204 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

What’s France got to do with it?

What’s France got to do with it?

Place of Publication:

Acton, A.C.T. : Australian National University Press, [2020]

Summary:

While only one book-length memoir recounting the sojourn of an Australian in France was published in the 1990s, well over 40 have been published since 2000, overwhelmingly written by women. Although we might expect a focus on travel, intercultural adjustment and communication in these texts, this is the case only in a minority of accounts. More frequently, France serves as a backdrop to a project of self-renovation in which transplantation to another country is incidental, hence the question 'What's France got to do with it?' The book delves into what France represents in the various narratives, its role in the self-transformation, and the reasons for the seemingly insatiable demand among readers and publishers for these stories. It asks why these memoirs have gained such traction among Australian women at the dawn of the twenty-first century and what is at stake in the fascination with France.-- |c Source other than Library of Congress.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Whats it got to do with us?

2. Whats travel got to do with it? Exploring a contemporary publishing phenomenon

3. Whats being there got to do with it? Distance, presence and belonging

4. Whats love got to do with it?

5. Whats France got to do with it?

6. Whats class got to do with it (and demographics more generally)?

7. Whats culture got to do with it?

8. Whats language got to do with it?

9. Whats wine got to do with it?

10. Whats gender got to do with it?

11. Conclusion: Whats Australia got to do with it?

Notes:

Description based on: online resource; title from PDF information screen (Worldcat, viewed March 29, 2023).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-192) and index.