Description: From Occitan poetry to Francophone writing produced in the Caribbean and North Africa, from intellectual history to current films, and from medieval manuscripts to bandes dessinées, this History covers French literature from its beginnings to the present day. With equal attention to all genres, historical periods and registers, this is the most comprehensive guide to literature written in French ever produced in English, and the first in decades to offer such an array of topics and perspectives. Contributors attend to issues of orality, history, peripheries, visual culture, alterity, sexuality, religion, politics, autobiography and testimony. The result is a collection that, despite the wide variety of topics and perspectives, presents a unified view of the richness of French-speaking cultures. This History gives support to the idea that French writing will continue to prosper in the twenty-first century as it adapts, adds to, and refocuses the rich legacy of its past.
Brief description: Nicholas Hammond is the author of several books and articles on seventeenth-century French literature. His books include Playing with Truth: Language and the Human Condition in Pascal's Pensées (Oxford University Press, 1994), Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century French Literature (Duckworth, 1997), Fragmentary Voices: Memory and Education at Port-Royal (Gunter Narr, 2004) and Gossip, Sexuality and Scandal in France, 1610-1715 (Peter Lang, 2011). He is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Pascal (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Review Quotes: '... a valuable and impressive introduction to the rich heritage of French literature.' Contemporary Review