{"title":"A sense of place: Special number in honour of Nicholas Hewitt","authors":"Michael Kelly","doi":"10.1177/09571558221144372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221144372","url":null,"abstract":"This is the introductory editorial to a special issue in honour of former editor of French Cultural Studies, Nicholas Hewitt (NH). It includes some reflections on the author's collaboration with NH and on the process of founding the journal in the late 1980s. It outlines the themes discussed in the nine substantive articles especially around the guiding theme of the sense of place, which NH did much to inspire.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"3 - 8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46570412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The anti-city: Representing La Défense in recent French fiction and film","authors":"J. Lane","doi":"10.1177/09571558221144369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221144369","url":null,"abstract":"This article begins with the 2009 documentary, La Dépossession, by filmmaker Jean-Robert Viallet, suggesting that La Défense is depicted as an anti-city. It seeks to anatomise this trope and chronotope, examining the manner in which a range of recent novels and feature films similarly lament the destructive effects of globalised finance on French society, polity and nation. They figure spatiotemporal relationships between France's present and its historical past, between the anonymity of La Défense and certain unmistakably French locations, between a supposedly ‘Anglo-Saxon’ mode of capital accumulation and the French nation this is held to threaten. Having identified the characteristic features of this trope and chronotope, the article then turns to consider some of their inherent paradoxes, ironies and contradictions. It points out that the historic centre of Haussmann's Paris is itself the product of an earlier process of violent restructuring and dispossession driven by powerful financial forces and undertaken at the behest of a highly conservative political regime. It is ironic that Haussmann's cityscape should now be presented as a symbol of stable, traditional, if now embattled, French national identity. Perhaps, La Défense should be imagined less as an anti-city than as a location deeply embedded in the complexities, contradictions and conflicts of French history.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"49 - 61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45628692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Colette and Saint-Tropez","authors":"E. Wilson","doi":"10.1177/09571558221144373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221144373","url":null,"abstract":"This article takes the novelist Colette, who bought a house outside Saint-Tropez in 1925, and examines moments and feelings from her time in that place. Inspired by Hewitt's approach, and by his example of ‘the unique hold exerted by Marseille on the nation's imagination’, it traces, through Colette, imaginative modes of inhabiting a space, seeing it as a psychic as much as material location, a repository of feelings. Colette's work invests a place with meaning through writing, so that it becomes an imaginary space, intimate, sensory, and consciously feminine. Since Colette's feminism resides most surely in her pursuit of pleasure, this place can be a house of feelings, about love, about present pleasures shaded by past experience, a space accessed through the senses. In this way, her house in Saint-Tropez appears as a space of speculation and exploratory relations, in which to think too about the lived and dreamed realities of other female lives.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"73 - 82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44090495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Love, grief and violence – A study of Camille Kouchner's La Familia grande (2021)","authors":"Orsolya Katalin Petocz","doi":"10.1177/09571558221143492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221143492","url":null,"abstract":"In her 2021 book La Familia grande, Camille Kouchner testifies to the event of sexual violence more precisely that of incestuous hebephiliac rape within her family. In extensive discussions that followed the publication of the book, the media has focused on the allegations of incestuous rape against Olivier Duhamel upon his stepson, twin-brother of Kouchner, nicknamed ‘Victor’ in La Familia grande. Kouchner's nuclear and extended family is part of a French politico-cultural elite that has been shaken by Kouchner's unveiling of violence. Acknowledging this context, this article looks closely at the text itself, and also situates it in relation to works by other woman members of Kouchner's family, with a sharp focus on the work of Évelyne Pisier, Kouchner's mother. This article teases out questions of love, grief and violence as related to Kouchner's testimony, presenting a case for close attention to the literary work alongside its paratexts. I argue that shifting away from the violence of Duhamel's acts, the book turns towards the ways in which the heteropatriarchal structures of the family allow for the perpetration of such an act and the perpetuation of its violence through silencing. This reading argues for the necessary unveiling of a filiation of women, to form a possible resistance to normative narratives of the family. This article further connects Judith Butler's thoughts about incest prohibition and Évelyne Pisier's queer-inclusive feminism.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"394 - 410"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49427858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bringing French modernism to Singapore: Nanyang painter Georgette Chen","authors":"C. Neal","doi":"10.1177/09571558221109703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221109703","url":null,"abstract":"A veritable world citizen, Nanyang painter Georgette Chen (1906–1993) melded artistic influences from both the East and West, bringing French modernism to Singapore. Much has been written about her contribution to the art of Singapore, her role in the establishment of the Nanyang Style, the lasting influence that she exerted on younger artists, and her considerable artistic achievements. Never before examined is the development of her oeuvre that reflects this mixture. The works selected for this investigation reveal her artistic development from student to teacher, the range of her thematic interests, and the stimuli that she absorbed from a life ensconced in eastern and western cultures.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"191 - 210"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49167141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Criminalizing Muslim agency in Europe: The case of ‘political Islam’ in Austria, Germany, and France","authors":"Farid Hafez","doi":"10.1177/09571558221133253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221133253","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the emergence of a discourse on ‘political Islam’ in the policy circles of European elites. It interprets this discourse on one hand as a manifestation of the further criminalization of Muslimness emanating from programs of countering ‘extremism’ and deradicalizing Muslim youth in the wake of the global war on terror. More specifically, the discourse on ‘political Islam’ is seen as an extension of countering violent extremism projects to counter an alleged non-violent ‘extremism.’ The article discusses three cases: Austria, Germany, and France to analyze what the fight against ‘political Islam’ (in Austria), ‘legalistic Islamism’ (in Germany), and ‘Islamist separatism’ (in France) respectively mean. These terminologies are analyzed as ‘empty signifiers’ and (Foucauldian) dispositifs that are used deliberately to legitimize state interventions to shape their respective societies. It is argued that the main shared idea is not that Muslims break the law or commit violence. Rather, the argument is that Muslims use the law to subvert their European nation-states. This aims at excluding Muslims from political life and not allowing them to shape the future of these countries. A simultaneous effort is the nurturing of an unpolitical, submissive Muslim that does not question hegemonial power structures, a project which is pursued by creating a domesticated or ‘national Islam.’ The article discusses these three terminologies' similarities and differences in the respective countries. In sum, the apparatus of ‘political Islam’ is interpreted as a means to 1) push back or exclude Muslims from the public sphere; 2) crackdown on organized Muslims; and 3) silence critical voices to these policies.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"313 - 328"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45992420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"La figure du Noir ou la persistance de l’imagerie coloniale dans les aventures d’Astérix","authors":"Marie-Dominique Duval","doi":"10.1177/09571558221085428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221085428","url":null,"abstract":"Cet article porte sur la représentation des personnages noirs dans la bande dessinée française Astérix. Écrite par René Goscinny et illustrée par Albert Uderzo, la série est parue pour la première fois en 1959 au moment des guerres de décolonisation de l’Empire français. Bien que destiné à divertir, Astérix reste néanmoins un produit de son époque dans sa représentation de personnages d’origine africaine. La série est peuplée de pygmées, de cannibales ou d’hommes noirs aux caractéristiques simiesques. Presque tous ont de petits crânes déformés, d’énormes lèvres rouges et parlent avec des accents grotesques. Bien que l’imagerie coloniale et raciste de la jeune bande dessinée franco-belge ait fait l’objet d’un examen minutieux, les caricatures racistes d’Astérix ont été étonnamment peu étudiées. Cet article aborde les origines de ces influences coloniales, fournit des exemples de stéréotypes raciaux et discute de la persistance de telles représentations dans les albums contemporains.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"33 1","pages":"328 - 344"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45192443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Censure et consensus dans le cinéma de l’après-guerre : La genèse parallèle d’Au royaume des cieux (Julien Duvivier, 1949) et La Cage aux filles (Maurice Cloche, 1950)","authors":"Daniel Morgan","doi":"10.1177/09571558221120881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221120881","url":null,"abstract":"Résumé Au royaume des cieux (Julien Duvivier, 1949) et La Cage aux filles (Maurice Cloche, 1950), deux fictions situées dans des centres de rééducation pour jeunes femmes, ont une histoire liée. Fondées sur le même fait divers, produites en même temps, elles font l'objet de tractations complexes lorsqu'elles sont soumises à la censure. Le film de Duvivier, dont le rapport au réel est ambigu, finit par échapper à une réécriture, alors que Maurice Cloche accepte de travailler de près avec le ministère de la Justice et finit par réaliser un film réaliste reproduisant le discours officiel des autorités. Pourtant, les deux œuvres présentent la rééducation en internat d'une manière trompeuse et contraire aux reportages sur lesquels elles sont fondés. En examinant la genèse parallèle des deux films, cet article réexamine le rôle des négociations et de la propagande dans la construction du cinéma « consensuel » français de l'après-guerre.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"377 - 393"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47750427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Traduire, un processus infini ?","authors":"I. Kristeva","doi":"10.1177/09571558221115031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221115031","url":null,"abstract":"On the basis of the problematization of the relationships between translatability and untranslatability, tradition and translation, we try to clear the impact of cultural context on the translator's choices. This impact is illustrated through three French translations of the opening stanza of the famous Hamlet monologue (III, 1), those of Voltaire, François-Victor Hugo and Yves Bonnefoy. The adopted perspective focuses on the philosophical dimension, the cultural horizon and the historicity of the act of translating. The starting hypothesis postulates that the translation can be considered as a rewriting of the original, which reflects a poetics and a worldview that reveal the functioning of the literature of a language-culture at a given time. Then the translational analysis can shed some light on the mechanisms of this conditioning. The developed reasoning leads to the conclusion that even though any translation depends on its cultural and historical space, the ethical aim requires to preserve the letter and the spirit of the source text.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46103859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is existentialism a posthumanism? The Sarterian reflections of Egloff and Darrieussecq","authors":"Gai Farchi","doi":"10.1177/09571558221118338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558221118338","url":null,"abstract":"The challenges of climate change and mass extinction have stressed the need to rethink our encounters with non-human others in the literary imagination. This article explores this question by reading L'étourdissement by Joël Egloff and Notre vie dans les forêts by Marie Darrieussecq vis-à-vis Sartre’s literary works (namely, La nausée) and philosophical works (namely, L’être et le néant). Drawing upon post-anthropocentric thought, I show how Egloff and Darrieussecq radicalize Sartre in a posthumanistic fashion. In L'étourdissement, this radicalization turns the drama of the look and of the affectivity of the nausea from a dyadic conflict of subject and object into an exposure to multiplicity. In Notre vie dans les forêts, the reciprocity of the self and its other is embedded in a corporeal interdependence, where the double is not perceived as a threat to the self but as a potential ally. In this sense, the Sarterian struggle against the undermining look of the other turns into a realization of radical interdependence and eventually into the emergence of care for the other.","PeriodicalId":12398,"journal":{"name":"French Cultural Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"161 - 174"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49218236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}