French Cultural Studies for the Twenty-First Century

Contributions by Annie Brancky, Elizabeth Emery, Michael Garval, Susan Hiner, Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp, Mehammed Mack, Rachel Mesch, Lise Schreier, Chelsea Stieber Edited by Masha Belenky, Kathryn Kleppinger, Anne ONeil-Henry

Not available to order

Publication date:

30 March 2017

Length of book:

246 pages

Publisher

University of Delaware Press

ISBN-13: 9781611496383

French Cultural Studies for the Twenty-First Century brings together current scholarship on a diverse range of topics—from French postcards and Third Republic menus to Haitian literary magazines and representation of race in vaudeville theater—in order to provide methodological insight into the current practice of French cultural studies. The essays in the volume show how scholars of French studies can effectively analyze what we term “non-traditional sources” in their historical and geographical contexts. In doing so, the volume offers a compelling vision of the field today and maps out potential paradigms for future research. This book builds upon previous scholarship that defined the stakes of using an interdisciplinary approach to analyze cultural objects from France and Francophone regions and aims to evaluate the current state of this complex and constantly evolving field and its current methodological practices.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: French Cultural Studies for the 21st Century by Masha Belenky, Kathryn Kleppinger, Anne O’Neil-Henry
I. Press and Literary Culture
Chapter 1: Methods and Challenges in Deciphering Representations of Authorial Intimacy in Late Nineteenth-Century French Photoreportages by Elizabeth Emery
Cahpter 2: The Haitian Literary Magazine in Francophone Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Production by Chelsea Stieber
II. Race and Identity in Popular Performance
Chapter 3: Reading Race in Nineteenth-Century French Vaudeville by Lise Schreier
Chapter 4: Diversity, Exploitation, and Immigration Politics in French “Ethnic” Erotica by Mehammed Mack
III. Repurposed Images
Chapter 5: Rediscovering Third Republic Illustrated Menus by Michael Garval
Chapter 6: Picturing the Catherinette: Reinventing Tradition for the Postcard Age by Susan Hiner
IV. Media Storms
Chapter 7: Unpacking the Success and Criticisms of Intouchables (2011) by Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp
Chapter 8: “La Transgression de l’écriture”: Marguerite Duras and the Affaire Villemin by Anne Brancky
Chapter 9: Understanding the Tinayre Affair: New Media, New Methods for the Belle Epoque by Rachel Mesch
About the Contributors
Index

Here is a well-arranged composite English-language work that introduces us to the literary movement of French cultural studies through its methodological practice. The analysis of non-traditional sources - generally left in the shadows by their popular origin (contrary to what is called the "high literature" of the great recognized authors) presents, in fact, a certain interest, and moreover, sheds new light on the research possibilities of cultural studies in literature and customs that have dominated the post-revolutionary period to the present day. . . . This original work once more opens discussions for the development of French cultural studies and serves as an example for anyone interested in this form of literary criticism. [Translated from original French]