French Literature

“The Drifting Language of Architectural Accessibility in Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris.” Disability Studies Quarterly 31:3 (2011): 1–16.

by Essaka Joshua

Winner of the 2011 Tyler Rigg Award for Disability Studies Scholarship in Literature and Literary Analysis.

Buildings often employ visual and spatial rhetorics that both persuade us of their function and determine personal... more Buildings often employ visual and spatial rhetorics that both persuade us of their function and determine personal functionality. Architectural language is a defining feature of disability in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and a universally accessible language. In emphasizing the synecdochic relationship between gothic buildings and the disabled body, Hugo demonstrates that he is not only a pioneer in urban and architectural semantics, but that he also understands the complex symbolic relationship between architecture and the disabled body. Defining beauty as atypicality, through the gothic aesthetic, Hugo presents Notre Dame Cathedral as a uniquely drifting symbol (with its multiple meanings, its transitional status and its cultural miscegenation) with a revelatory function: it expresses disability as normative.

Eyes Wide Shut: Diderot's Le Rêve de d'Alembert

by Kate Tunstall

in James Fowler, New Essays on Diderot (Cambridge, 2011)

Éléments D'Une Topologie Classique: Les Comédies De Molière

by Llewellyn BROWN

Littérature n° 147, septembre 2007, p. 69-83.

Montaigne's Two Plutarchs

by Alison CALHOUN

MONTAIGNE STUDIES, VOL. XXI, NO 1-2 (2009) - MONTAIGNE ET LES PHILOSOPHES

Redefining Nobility in the French Renaissance: The Case of Montaigne’s Journal de voyage

by Alison CALHOUN

MLN - Volume 123, Number 4, September 2008 (French Issue), pp. 836-854

Montaigne and the Comic: Exposing Private Life

by Alison CALHOUN

Philosophy and Literature, Volume 35, Number 2, October 2011, pp. 303-319

Between men of action, men of words, and men—like the philosophers—who find themselves curiously in between, Montaigne... more Between men of action, men of words, and men—like the philosophers—who find themselves curiously in between, Montaigne would ideally write like Epicurus and Seneca, in a style that unites his actions with his words. This union of "doings" and "sayings," of doctrine and daily activity, is also what Montaigne refers to as the wisdom of the philosophers. His new form of wisdom in the Essays unites his sayings and doings, but without losing touch with the paradox of making the private public, and the inevitability of being judged comic in his time for exposing his private life.

The sudden rise of French existentialism: a case-study in the sociology of intellectual life

by Patrick Baert

Published in Theory and Society 2011 40, pp. 619-644.

This article offers a new explanation for the sudden rise in popularity of French existentialism, in particular of... more This article offers a new explanation for the sudden rise in popularity of French existentialism, in particular of Sartre’s version, in the mid-1940s. It develops a multidimensional account which recognises both structural and cultural factors. The explanation differs from, and more fully addresses the complexity of the situation than, the two most prominent existing explanations: namely Anna Boschetti’s Bourdieu-inspired account and Randall Collins’ network-based approach. It is argued that, because of specific socio-political circumstances, the intellectual establishment became tainted and lost legitimacy, with its aesthetic and philosophical views now regarded as outdated if not politically dangerous. This hiatus brought unprecedented publishing opportunities for a new philosophical current, and skilful public performances by the main protagonists helped its ascendancy. Most importantly, existentialist writers colluded with de Gaulle in portraying a cohesive and defiant French nation; and their philosophy, especially in its notion of responsibility, enabled sections of French society to assimilate and make sense of the recent past, whilst drawing a line underneath it so as to move forward.

Key words: Sartre, sociology of philosophy, sociology of ideas, public intellectuals, cultural trauma

Jean-Paul Sartre's positioning in Anti-Semite and Jew

by Patrick Baert

Published in the Journal of Classical Sociology 11 4 2011, pp. 378-397.

This article is one of the first to employ positioning theory to analyse an intellectual product. After introducing... more This article is one of the first to employ positioning theory to analyse an intellectual product. After introducing the theory itself, it explores how Sartre’s book Réflexions sur la question juive enabled him to locate himself within, as well as intervene in, the socio-political and intellectual context at the time.  Using the text, Sartre positioned himself as an authoritative public intellectual; that is, a generalist, drawing on his vast cultural resources to speak out about a wide range of important societal issues with moral conviction. He also positioned himself within the tradition of the Dreyfusard notion of the intellectual - that is, as an intellectual who engages with contemporary social and political issues and who is a defender of progressive Republican notions whilst remaining an independent voice - with the qualification that he expressed disquiet about the French Republican notion of citizenship. Drawing on these insights, the article ends discussing glaring omissions in Sartre’s Réflexions sur la question juive, making sense of them in the light of the socio-political context of the mid-1940s in France. The article shows the fruitfulness of positioning theory for analysing intellectual interventions whether they are in the form of books, essays or articles.

Key words: Sartre, perfomativity, positioning theory, intellectuals, Jews, anti-Semitism

The power struggle of intellectuals at the end of the second world war: a study in the sociology of ideas

by Patrick Baert

In: European Journal of Social Theory 14(4) 2011, pp. 415-435

This article is one of the first sociological explorations of power struggles between intellectuals where matters of... more This article is one of the first sociological explorations of power struggles between intellectuals where matters of life and death are literally at stake. It counters the prevailing tendency within sociology to study intellectuals within confined academic institutions where power struggles are limited to matters of symbolic and institutional recognition. This study explores the conflict between collaborationist and Resistance intellectuals at the end of the Second World War in France, and it focuses in particular on the purge of collaborationist intellectuals which culminated in several high profile trials. This article shows that the arguments and meta-arguments put forward in these trials led to broader intellectual debates outside the courtroom. These debates not only centred on the notion of the writer’s responsibility, but also dealt with anxieties about the disintegrative forces of modern society. Whereas collaborationist intellectuals portrayed their writing as either separate from politics or rescuing a defunct or degenerate nation, Resistance intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre were keen to portray collaborators as outsiders, both socially and sexually, lacking in social integration and subservient to a strong external force. The Resistance intellectuals saw the notion of individual responsibility not as antithetical but as integral to the remaking of the French nation, and this concept would become the cornerstone of the reshaping of the intellectual landscape in the post-war era in France.

Keywords: de Beauvoir, intellectuals, meta-arguments, power struggles, purge, Sartre, trials

Parallel Paths to Self-Discovery A Comparative History of the Critical Discourses of the'Nouveau Roman'and the'Nouvelle Vague', 1951-1967

by Dorota Ostrowska

Reading the French New Wave: Critics, Writers and Art Cinema In France

by Dorota Ostrowska

G. Margiotto, "Gérard de Nerval e la poetica dell'Assoluto"

by Giada Margiotto

Published in "Bibliomanie - Ricerca umanistica e orientamento bibliografico", n°27 (October/December 2011)

Ferrer, Carolina. 2003. «Memoria e imaginación: los mundos inenarrables de Patricio Manns y de Antoine Volodine». Taller de Letras n°32, p. 7-26.

by Carolina Ferrer

Berber Poetry and the Issue of Derivation: Alternate Symbolist Trajectories, Oxford Handbook of Global Modernism, Ed. Mark Wollaeger (2012): 81-108; available on google books

by Edwige Tamalet Talbayev

Les narrateurs en scène, l'héritage romanesque d'En attendant Godot, Fin de Partie et Oh les Beaux jours

by Matthieu Protin

My purpose is to question the importance of narrative in a theater where, as Estragon states it at the beginning of... more My purpose is to question the importance of narrative in a theater where, as Estragon states it at the beginning of Waiting for Godot, « There is nothing to show ». This importance seems directly linked to the fact that Beckett is firstly a novelist. Therefore, finding echoes  from his novels in his plays by the similarity of the themes dealt with doesn't really surprise. What is more surprising, is when what seems to be so specifically novelistic, the narrative,also becomes a very important part of the plays. The three plays studied in this paper, Oh les Beaux jours, En attendant Godot, Fin de Partie, are stylistically marked by this novelistic heritage, which can be found in the telling of the different characters : Vladimir's Gospel, Hamm's Novel, Winnie's story. The narrators are on stage. This tension between dramatic and narrative elements tackles generic issues, which may help us to understand the specificity of Beckett's dramatic writing.  The show may be over, there still is a lot to tell...

“Have You Thought of a Story?” Galland's Scheherazade and Mary Shelley's 1831 Frankenstein

by Rebecca Nesvet

Jean-Paul Sartre, entre Richard Wright et Mathieu Delarue

by Yan Hamel

Les prises de position jazzistiques de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans  MONTANDON, Frédérique et Aude LOCATELLI (dir.). Réflexions sur la socialité de la musique, Paris, L’Harmattan, coll. « Logiques sociales/musiques et champ social », 2007, p. 185-199.

Scènes de la vie (anti) américaine. Autour de La putain respectueuse de Jean-Paul Sartre

by Yan Hamel

Dans Études littéraires, vol XXXIX, no 2, hiver 2008, p. 99-111.

En France, est-ce injurier quelqu’un que de taxer son propos d’antiaméricanisme ? Voilà la question à laquelle... more En France, est-ce injurier quelqu’un que de taxer son propos d’antiaméricanisme ? Voilà la question à laquelle l’auteur de cette communication entend apporter quelques éléments de réponse en passant par une analyse de la pièce de théâtre La putain respectueuse et du tollé que ses premières représentations, en novembre 1946, soulevèrent dans la critique parisienne. L’étude amènera en outre l’auteur à se pencher sur le type particulièrement brutal de relation que, dans sa volonté d’engagement, le théâtre sartrien établit avec son public.

In France, is it an offense to pretend someone’s comments are antiamerican ? This is the question the author of this paper intends to answer. To do so, he analyzes Jean-Paul Sartre’s play La putain respectueuse (The Respectful Prostitute) and the outcry started by its first representations in November 1946. The author also questions the particularly brutal kind of relationship Sartre’s theater, in its will to commitment, establishes with its audience.

Pour un roman francais a l'americaine: Jean-Paul Sartre critique litteraire

by Yan Hamel

Dans Études françaises, vol. 43, 3, 2007, p. 41-54.

Au cours de la période de douze ans durant laquelle il a publié ses nouvelles et ses romans (1937-1949), Jean-Paul... more Au cours de la période de douze ans durant laquelle il a publié ses nouvelles et ses romans (1937-1949), Jean-Paul Sartre a aussi fait paraître une série de critiques littéraires et de manifestes pour l’engagement de la littérature. Dans ces critiques et ces manifestes, l’auteur des Situations accorde une place centrale au genre romanesque : cette partie de son oeuvre a été un espace où, en prenant position par rapport aux autres écrivains, Sartre a implicitement défini sa conception du genre romanesque, ainsi que les ambitions littéraires, philosophiques et politiques qu’il poursuivait par l’entremise de ses propres fictions narratives. L’ensemble des oeuvres auxquelles Sartre s’intéresse dans ses essais sur la littérature se caractérise par une stricte bipartition. D’un côté, des prédécesseurs et des contemporains français tels que Jean Giraudoux, François Mauriac, Paul Nizan, Albert Camus et Maurice Blanchot sont plus ou moins durement éreintés selon les cas. En contrepartie, des oeuvres écrites par ceux que Sartre appelle indifféremment « les Américains », c’est-à-dire, pour l’essentiel, William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck et Richard Wright, suscitent de l’enthousiasme, reçoivent des éloges et sont considérés comme des modèles dont l’écrivain français devrait idéalement parvenir à s’inspirer. Dans cet article, l’auteur dégage la signification de cette bipartition entre oeuvres américaines et françaises et circonscrit la fonction qu’elle remplit dans le système de la critique littéraire sartrienne.

During the twelve years in which he published short stories and novels (1937-1949), Jean-Paul Sartre also wrote articles of literary criticism and manifestos defending commitment in literature. In these articles and manifestos, the author of Situations focused his reflection on the poetics of fiction. In this part of his work, Sartre situated himself among other writers. He also defined implicitly, with his own conception of the novel, the literary, philosophic and political ambitions he was pursuing at this time. The works of fiction analyzed by Sartre in his articles and manifestos are characterized by a strict bipartition. On the one hand, he subjected his French predecessors and contemporaries like Jean Giraudoux, François Mauriac, Paul Nizan, Albert Camus and Maurice Blanchot to pretty harsh scrutiny, while works by novelists that Sartre lumped together [generally referred to] as the “Americans” (William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Richard Wright) were enthusiastically praised and heralded as the models to inspire French writers. In this article, Sartre’s system of literary criticism is called forth in elucidating the meaning of this bipartition between American and French fiction.