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This article offers a deeper understanding of Hugo's social philosophy as expressed in Les Misérables through a reading of the novel's treatment of prostitution and Parisian sewers in the context of contemporary thought. Specifically, Hugo reframes the prostitute- as- sewer metaphor that was commonplace among contemporaries such as Parent- Duchâtelet. First, in the story of Fantine, he provides a narrative articulation of the social problem of prostitution that reveals the full import of Parent- Duchâtelet's work on the subject. Then he offers an alternate understanding of the sewer to which the prostitute was often compared, and simultaneously expands his metaphorical treatment of the sewers to include all of society's outcasts. Hugo thus rewrites prevailing social thought to advocate for a new relationship between society and its most disadvantaged members as well as the reintegration of les misérables into the social whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationships among female respectability, aesthetics, and national belonging in the wake of World War II. This was a time of tumult, and the French sought order through conformity. This conformity had much to do with conservative gender roles. The article analyzes images of female beauty and love in the feminine press. A complex reading of these images reveals an intriguing subtext: a woman needed to conform to certain images of respectable femininity, which included a properly feminine appearance and, perhaps most important, a satisfied man at her side. Articles in women's magazines warned that a woman's failure to conform to such standards would result in ostracism and a lifetime of loneliness. This article posits that establishing these strict guidelines for women was crucial to reinstating a sense of male virility and control in France after the chaos of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, Montolieu, France celebrated its twentieth anniversary as Montolieu, village du livre et des Arts Graphiques. Within two decades, this town of under 800 residents has witnessed significant economic, cultural, demographic and physical changes that have transformed it from a victim of rural exodus to an increasingly important cultural centre and tourist destination, as well as a desirable location for purchasing second residences. I begin this article by examining the conditions that prompted the rural town's decision to adopt a new identity based on literary and print culture. I contextualize the development of this village du livre within a growing European book town trend and within a larger French fascination with literature, literary culture and literacy. I next investigate the tensions and challenges that arose in the community as the project began taking shape. Finally, I analyse how the adoption of a new identity has affected the town's social and physical make-up, especially as evident in three local lieux de mémoire: the Musée Michel Braibant, the Manufacture Royale and the Coopérative, Centre d'Art et de Littérature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article questions the panoramic genre through a study of Les Français peints par eux-mêmes and its relation with natural history. Both Janin and Balzac saw similarities between the volumes' social taxonomies and the scientific classifications of the period. At stake in the matter is the question of who "les Français" are and what traits can be put forward as part of a common national identity. Yet, both writers--and ultimately the collective project as a whole-- constantly question the taxonomies that their texts are building, eventually casting a doubt on the possibility of classification itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues of French pedagogical reform, noting the resistance to educational changes at the high school level within France. It addresses the French social interest in a shared literary culture, the treatment of socially important literature in the French curriculum, and the suspicion in France of market-based theories of value for literature.

The article presents a literature review of late 20th- and early 21st-century international scholarship devoted to French author Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850). Publications are discussed in thematic categories, such as: analyses of gender and sexuality in Balzac's fiction and drama; his work in historical context, including the influence of the French Revolution and his political views; the significance of landscape and place in Balzac; and his language and style, including textual and narrative analyses.

An essay on the intellectual, literary, and political activity of French poet and author Edouardo Glissant is presented. The author provides a discussion on the politics and world literature during the life time of Glissant. He argues that contribution of Glissant in the "Pour une littérature voyageuse" manifesto is in its accompanying "Pour une liteérature-monde" which lacks sociology of literature to which the world literature in French is based.

Each year since 1989, France has celebrated Lire en fete, a literary festival initiated by then Minister of Culture Jack Lang. Like other national festivals created during the 1980s, such as La Fete de la musique and La Fete du cinema, Lire en fete provides entertainment, but also directly relates to government democratisation efforts. This article analyses the 2007 version of Lire en fete, focusing on primary documents such as the Dossier de presse and the official website, and suggests that the French government uses this festival to increase public engagement in French society and to encourage responsible citizenship, in part by fostering the development of a literate public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manifesto Pour une literature-monde en français, published in Le Monde in 2007 and followed by an edited volume containing texts by over half of the manifesto's 44 signatories, appeared in a context of doubt concerning the place of French culture in the world. The manifesto's authors denounce the formalism of the contemporary French novel, claiming that it is cut off from the world. However, they salute the fact that the world has re-entered the francophone novel thanks to the vibrancy of writing in French from the Caribbean and Africa in particular, writing celebrated each year at the 'Étonnants voyageurs' literary festival that takes place around the world. Although the 'littérature-monde' gospel recalls Goethe's Weltliteratur and Glissant's vision of the 'Tout-monde', it is, as the prepositional clause 'en français' in the title of the Le Monde manifesto indicates, strangely attached to a persistent notion of 'francophonie', the official, institutionalised version of which it appears, however, to reject. It is, above all, based on an apparent inferiority complex with respect to the postcolonial anglophone novel. Publié en 2007, le manifeste Pour une littérature-monde en français , signé par 44 écrivains, s'inscrit dans un contexte de doute sur la place de la culture française dans le monde. Les auteurs dénoncent le formalisme stérile du roman français contemporain qui se complairait dans des recherches formelles coupées du réel. Mais 'le monde revient' grâce aux écrivains-voyageurs, migrants et nomades venus de la Caraïbe, d'Afrique ou d'Asie, que célèbre par exemple le Festival littéraire 'Étonnants voyageurs'. Les signataires du manifeste appellent la littérature française sclérosée à s'ouvrir sur le monde, à devenir une 'littérature-monde'. Malgré les allusions à la Weltliteratur de Goethe et au 'Tout-monde' d'Édouard Glissant, les signataires du manifeste restent paradoxalement fidèles à une écriture 'en français' tout en érigeant le roman anglophone en modèle, et tout particulièrement l'œuvre des auteurs issus de la décolonisation de l'Empire britannique. Le manifeste exalte la vitalité du récit et la richesse d'un monde coloré qui, selon eux, contraste singulièrement avec la grisaille du roman français hexagonal, que seul l'apport d'auteurs venus d'Outre-mer peut sauver. Cette vision sommaire et quelque peu exotisante du roman anglophone traduit un véritable complexe vis-à-vis des littératures de langue anglaise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first installment of Louis Viardot’s translation of the sixteenth-century Spanish novel El Lazarillo de Tormes appeared in Le Siècle in the summer of 1836, weeks before the publication of Balzac’s Une Vieille Fille inaugurated the age of the serial novel in France. Viardot’s reading of the picaresque novel, inscribed both in his introductory comments as well as in the fabric of the translation itself, reinserts the text within the outlines of a new, socially and politically engaged literature for a broader readership. At the same time, the translation’s incongruities reveal the contradictions inherent to debates over the question sociale. This article situates Viardot’s translation among the changing socio-cultural discourses and practices that both informed and were informed by the emergence of a modern popular press and literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the series of notebooks called "Cool Memories," written by Jean Baudrillard in France. He attempted to write in an aphoristic, fragmented mode to grasp the world without finding a central point, a point of interpretation. The author claims that the notebooks examines the kind of writing which was envisaged as providing a mode of access to radical modernity beyond any possibility of interpretation. It suggests that the series can be considered as Baudrillard's way of living in the world as a tension between radical empiricism and mastery in the symbolic order. Moreover, it presents the reader with an impossible dilemma between critique or jouissance

The article presents an analysis on the impact of Gustave Flaubert's literature to female readers. Flaubert's literary work "Madame Bovary," is a nineteenth century French novel which possess a danger of Quixotism for female readers. The novel is capable of affecting the emotion of women who are known to have overflowing sensibility, a women who tend to follow the emotion rather than the mind or reason. The novel is inferred to produce an effect the same of a seventeenth century novel "The Female Quixote" by Charlotte Lennox.

Looks into the shared heritage of Ireland and France depicted by Samuel Beckett in his novel "Mercier Et Camier." Points of intersection in the two countries' religious, cultural and military histories; Establishment of Ireland as an independent European entity; Utilization of the motif of the war veteran.

Because of its representation of marginal and often violent milieux, the status of noir fiction has long been that of an 'inferior', less 'literary' genre. It could be argued that its frequent references to popular culture, and especially television and film, explain its appeal to a wide audience, one that does not necessarily read other genres. The intrigue and setting of the noir novel enables it to be perceived primarily as a ludic activity while often dealing with issues which are both political and ideological. Brigitte Aubert's work makes frequent references to film, TV and popular literature, and this article aims to examine the way these are used, how they play with notions of reality and fiction, how they can create an ironic distance which allows the writer both to create a sense of complicity with the reader and to criticise the society she presents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that Martin du Gard's novel "Jean Barois" not only presents a "portrait of an age" but that it also represents a "putting into practice" of the intellectual debates in turn-of-the-century France. Use of the protagonist to represent an entire generation of young intellectuals; Pivotal role of the Dreyfus Affair in French politics and culture; Portrayal of a representative crisis of faith of main character.

Explores the social implications of the magazine Les Inrockuptibles in France. Details on the origin of the magazine's name; Influence of the magazine on politics; Relationship between biological ageing and social ageing; Account on the aesthetic criteria and identity of the magazine; Analysis on the planning and financial manoeuvering of the publication.

Analyzes the significance and reputation of the literary works of American writer Ernest Hemingway in France since his death in 1961. Popularity of the literary works of Hemingway; Reasons for the dislike of Hemingway's literary works; Factors responsible for the commercial success and popularity of Hemingway's fiction.

Focuses on the interaction of the fields of literary studies and the human sciences in France since the turn of the 20th century. Historical perspective on the future of French cultural studies; Repercussions of the emergence of French human sciences on the interactions between ethnography and literature.

Examines `Beur' culture on the basis of the differing discourses about it from the media, sociology and fiction. Theoretical approach of the relationship between discourse and culture; Argument of `Beur' culture as being found in the competition among the discourses; Starting notion of `Beurs' as halfway between French and Arab or France and the Maghreb; Discourses' use of `departenance' or refusal to define's one's identity.

This article reviews recent convergences in the French social science literature, particularly those emerging between the sociology and economics of innovation, regulation theory and convention theory, focusing primarily on the contribution of this latter. In the first section, examples of collaboration across these different currents are discussed and the migration of key concepts identified. This is followed by a more detailed comparison of the respective contributions of convention and regulation theory which has dominated 'non-standard' economic thinking in France since the late 1970s. The main features of convention theory are then presented together with an appreciation of this approach's potential for providing a new framework within which to situate the emergence, consolidation and transformation of different patterns of economic co-ordination. This potential is illustrated with reference to the analysis of the agrofood sector. The article focuses specifically on convention theory since its contribution has been less widely discussed in the Anglo-Saxon literature than its 'rival / complement' regulation theory. Areas of convergence and contrast with recent developments in the new micro-economics and the new economic sociology are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]