France from 1851 to the Present

France from 1851 to the Present

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This study is a cultural history of France from a period of dominant universalism in the mid-19th Century, to the post-modern era, when the “French exception” had entered a period of crisis.
A cultural history of France from a period of dominance in the mid-19th century to one of “decline” or “crisis” in the first few years of the third millennium. The first part (1851 to 1944) explores developments ranging from the transformation of Paris and the appearance of the colonial empire, to the construction of modern French society. The second part of the book follows the crisis of French universalism or of the “French exception” from the end of World War II to the contemporary period in which the “French model” has been increasingly difficult to sustain in the face of globalization, the Americanization of culture, decolonization and multiculturalism, among other developments.
Roger Célestin is Professor of French and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of From Cannibals to Radicals: Figures and Limits of Exoticism and co-editor of Beyond French Feminisms. He is co-founder and co-editor of Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES. Eliane DalMolin is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Cutting the Body: Representing Woman in Baudelaire’s Poetry, Truffaut’s Cinema, and Freud’s Psychoanalysis and co-editor of Beyond French Feminisms. She is co-founder and co-editor of Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES.
“University of Connecticut professors Célestin and Dalmolin offer an ambitious and comprehensive survey of the last 150 years of French history and culture organized around a thesis of a ‘crisis of universalism’ in which France’s fall from great power status and increasingly multicultural character present challenges to the traditional identity of the universal French citizen. The book’s structure flows nicely, with the narrative broken periodically by primary source texts from a variety of genres (fiction, philosophy, pop culture, etc.) The authors have done an excellent job of choosing these texts, which taken together give readers a series of vivid snapshots of French society from 1851 to the present. The result is a book that will offer new insights and information to specialists while being general and accessible enough for beginners.”–Choice 
“It’s hard to imagine teaching French culture without this book. We should thank
Célestin and Dalmolin for writing this immensely compelling and useful narrative of French modernity.”–Kristin Ross, New York University
 
 “Organized around a series of complex and intriguing case studies ranging from Napoleon III’s ‘coup d’état speech’ to de Gaulle’s ‘City Hall speech’ at the Liberation, from Emile Zola’s The Belly of Paris to Michel Houellebecq’s Whatever, this book invites close reading, analysis, and debate.
Célestin and DalMolin’s volume achieves the promise of French cultural studies as a discipline. Sure to become a classic.”–Alice Kaplan, Duke University
 
“Through its scope, range, structure, and constant basis in commentary on specific texts and institutions, France from 1851 to the Present is just what is needed to fill the yawning gap in the market. Clear, lively, well-written, multi-focused, it will find a place on the syllabus of every institution where French is studied.”–Michael Sheringham, University of Oxford

PART ONE: 1851-1944 * France at Mid-Century * A Changing World: The Second Empire and Beyond * Scandals and the New in the Republic * War and Peace * Socialism, Fascism and War * PART TWO: 1945-2006 * From the Liberation Into the Fifties * (De)Colonization * Modernization, Mass Culture, May 68, and Life After de Gaulle * The Socialist Republic * The Republic in the Third Millennium

Additional information

Weight 2 oz
Dimensions 1 × 6 × 9 in