French Fiction in the Mitterrand Years: Memory, Narrative, Desire (Oxford Studies in Modern European Culture) - Softcover

In this welcome tome theory is put at the service of literature ... These individuated pieces are rich and satisfying. The instructive, entertaining readings generate numerous profound insights, reminding us that literature still has the potential to transform prevailing attitudes ... this is a really good book. (Modern Language Review)

This readers' guide is written for university students, but is lively and lucid enough to please the layman ... The anaylses are sharp and remarkably free of pomp ... All the quotes are translated, but it still makes you want to curl up with a bilingual dictionary and read some good novels in French. (Scott Steedman, Paris Voice)

In the 1980s and 1990s French Fiction has emerged from the towering shadow of the formalist literary debates of the fifties and sixties and has reclaimed the ground of history, or narrative, of the individual self which has been the thrust of artistic endeavour for much of European history. The Author has returned from the dead to entertain and tell stories, as well as to negotiate a path through traumatic experiences such as the legacy of Frances colonial and wartime past, the Holocaust, the spectre of Aids, the labyrinths of desire and personal identity. Colin Davis and Elizabeth Fallaize examine some of the most popular and some of the most challenging of texts which emerged during François Mitterrand's presidency of France (1981-1995) and relate them to the dominant literary and cultural trends of the period. The book will appeal to students at all levels who are engaged in courses in twentieth-century fiction and to readers with an interest in contemporary French culture.