Search

A special issue of French Cultural Studies in 1999 sought to explore the ways in which Modern Linguists have often tended to erase traces of their personal lives from their work. Contributors responded in an autobiographical mode by exploring the ‘hidden selves of scholars and teachers’. This article builds on these reflections by exploring the extent to which Edgar Morin’s Commune en France (1967), his contribution to the multidisciplinary project in Plozévet in Brittany, may be understood as ‘autobiographie involontaire’. The study reads Morin’s Journal de Plozévet (published in 2001, over three decades after the research was completed) in relation to the original monograph and suggests that the diary operates as the second panel of a diptych that reveals the texts’ interdependence. The journal fulfils a ‘genetic’ function, providing the sources for elements of Morin’s monograph and giving an indication of the extent to which Morin drew on the work of his wider team to complement his own observations. More importantly, however, reading the two texts in counterpoint – the one providing spontaneous reflections in the field; the other revealing their processing in the immediate aftermath of the enquête – is part of the revelation of the ‘hidden selves’ of a researcher embedded in a monograph that has been long considered a classic of post-war French sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a narrative on the trial of Maurice Papon in France. Precedence of the trial; Progress of the cross-examination; Impact of the Algerean War on the case.

Analyzes the sociology of Edgar Morin, focusing on Morin's study of the Breton, France commune of Plozevet, and the film he worked on with Jean Rouch. Identification of the film; What the two projects share; Why Morin's collaboration on the film was both frustrating and illuminating for him; Morin's intention in studying Plozevet.

Focuses on Victor Segalen and his writings on museology. Sense of stage-management and exhibition as framework of Segalen's museology; Ambivalent attitude towards museums; Museum and representations of the exotic; Segalen as a museum visitor and a museologist; Reaction to American and late-19th century museum.