Synopses & Reviews
A cultural history of France from a period of dominance in the mid-19th century to one of “decline” or “crisis” in the first few years of the third millennium. The first part (1851 to 1944) explores developments ranging from the transformation of Paris and the appearance of the colonial empire, to the construction of modern French society. The second part of the book follows the crisis of French universalism or of the “French exception” from the end of World War II to the contemporary period in which the “French model” has been increasingly difficult to sustain in the face of globalization, the Americanization of culture, decolonization and multiculturalism, among other developments.
Review
"It's hard to imagine teaching French culture without this book. We should thank Celestin and Dalmolin for writing this immensely compelling and useful narrative of French modernity."--Kristin Ross, New York University
“Organized around a series of complex and intriguing case studies ranging from Napoleon III's ‘coup d'état speech to de Gaulle's ‘City Hall speech at the Liberation, from Emile Zola's The Belly of Paris to Michel Houellebecq's Whatever, this book invites close reading, analysis, and debate. Celestin and DalMolin's volume achieves the promise of French cultural studies as a discipline. Sure to become a classic.”--Alice Kaplan, Duke University
"Through its scope, range, structure, and constant basis in commentary on specific texts and institutions, France from 1851 to the Present is just what is needed to fill the yawning gap in the market. Clear, lively, well-written, multi-focused, it will find a place on the syllabus of every institution where French is studied."--Michael Sheringham, University of Oxford
Synopsis
A cultural history of France from a period of dominance in the mid-19th century to one of "decline" or "crisis" in the first few years of the third millennium. The first part (1851 to 1944) explores developments ranging from the transformation of Paris and the appearance of the colonial empire, to the construction of modern French society. The second part of the book follows the crisis of French universalism or of the "French exception" from the end of World War II to the contemporary period in which the "French model" has been increasingly difficult to sustain in the face of globalization, the Americanization of culture, decolonization and multiculturalism, among other developments.
Synopsis
Bringing together history, literature, and popular culture, this book provides a cultural history of France from a period of dominance in the mid-19th century to one of decline or crisis in the first few years of the third millennium. Contains both chronological narrative and a selection of primary documents in translation.
Synopsis
This study is a cultural history of France from a period of dominant universalism in the mid-19th Century, to the post-modern era, when the "French exception" had entered a period of crisis.
About the Author
Roger Célestin is Professor of French and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of
From Cannibals to Radicals: Figures and Limits of Exoticism and co-editor of
Beyond French Feminisms. He is co-founder and co-editor of
Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES. Eliane DalMolin is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Cutting the Body: Representing Woman in Baudelaire's Poetry, Truffaut's Cinema, and Freud's Psychoanalysis and co-editor of Beyond French Feminisms. She is co-founder and co-editor of Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES.
Table of Contents
PART ONE: 1851-1944 * France at Mid-Century * A Changing World: The Second Empire and Beyond * Scandals and the New in the Republic * War and Peace * Socialism, Fascism and War * PART TWO: 1945-2006 * From the Liberation Into the Fifties * (De)Colonization * Modernization, Mass Culture, May 68, and Life After de Gaulle * The Socialist Republic * The Republic in the Third Millennium