Thresholds of Meaning examines contemporary French narrative and explores two related issues: the centrality within recent French fiction and autofiction of the themes of passage, ritual and liminality; and the thematic continuity which links this work with its literary ancestors of the 1960s and 1970s. Through the close analysis of novels and récits by Pierre Bergounioux, François Bon, Marie Darrieussecq, Hélène Lenoir, Laurent Mauvignier and Jean Rouaud, Duffy demonstrates the ways in which contemporary narrative, while capitalising on the formal lessons of the nouveau roman and drawing upon a shared repertoire of motifs and themes, engages with the complex processes by which meaning is produced in the referential world and, in particular, with the rituals and codes that social man brings into play in order to negotiate the various stages of the human life-cycle. By the application of concepts and models derived from ritual theory and from visual analysis, Thresholds of Meaning situates itself at the intersection of the developing field of literature and anthropology studies and research into word and image.
In the course of a writing career spanning half a century, Michel Butor has produced a remarkable range and volume of publications, including fiction, travel works, poetry, critical essays and various types of mixed-genre works which resist ready categorization. Much of this very diverse oeuvre is marked by his life-long passion for the visual arts. This study is the first full-length analysis of the role played by the references to the visual, plastic and architectural arts in Butor’s work. It addresses a wide range of issues including the role of the artwork, building or monument as narrative generator; the reflexive functions of the visual and architectural references; the interaction between visual/architectural references and intertextual citation; the role of collaboration in Butor’s oeuvre; the relationship between cultural baggage and the workings of the unconscious; the tension between Butor’s fascination for non-European artistic traditions and his continuing dialogue with the Western tradition.
This textbook provides a comprehensive and structured vocabulary for all levels of undergraduate French courses, including relevant higher and further education courses. It offers a broad coverage of concrete and abstract vocabulary relating to the physical, cultural, social, commercial and political environment, as well as exposure to commonly encountered technical terminology. Within each section, words and phrases have been grouped into manageable, assimilable units and broadly 'graded' according to likely usefulness and difficulty. The accompanying exercises for private study and classroom use are designed to reinforce the work done on lists, to develop good dictionary use, to encourage independent and collaborative learning, to promote precision and awareness of nuance and register, and to offer the opportunity for the development of cognate transferable skills, such as communicative competence, teamwork and problem-solving. The division of the book into twenty thematic sections allows it to be easily integrated into a modular course structure.
This is the first extended analysis of Simon’s novels, examining the relationship between the work of the French Nobel prize-winning novelist Claude Simon and that of a number of visual artists whose work he has used as stimuli in the production of his novels.
This is the first full-length study to cover the complete texts of Hervé Guibert (1955–1991), offering a thorough documentation of his literary output. The book is guided by Guibert’s relation to the novel, a major line of enquiry throughout, as well as his experimentation with voices in particular. One of Boulé’s main contentions is that Guibert arrives at the creation of a new literary genre, the roman faux, with the publication of his best-known work To the Friend who did not save my life. The book ends by considering the works Guibert produced after he was diagnosed as HIV positive, within the parameter of the voices of the self.
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