An Introduction to Nineteenth-Century French Literature (New Readings) (New Readings)
Publisher: Duckworth Publishers; Duckworth
Published: July 13, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 160
ISBN-13: 9780715629079
Subjects: Literary studies: 19th century; Literary Criticism; Literature - Classics / Criticism; French; Continental European; European - French; Literature & Fiction / Literary Criticism; Literary Criticism & Collections / French; 19th century; French literature; History and criticism
Description: "Everyone knows something of nineteenth-century France - or do they? Les Miserables, The Lady of the Camelias and The Three Musketeers, Balzac and Jules Verne live in the popular consciousness as enduring human documents and cultural icons. Yet the French nineteenth century was even more dynamic than the stereotype suggests." "This introduction takes the literature of the period both as a window on past and present mindsets and as an object of fascination in its own right. Beginning with history, the century's biggest problem and potential, it looks at narrative responses to historical, political and social experience, before devoting central chapters to poetry, drama and novels - all genres the century radically reinvented. It then explores numerous modernities, ways nineteenth-century writing and mentalities look forward to our own, before turning to marginalities - subjects and voices the canon traditionally forgot. No genres were left unchanged by the nineteenth century. This book will help to discover them anew."--book jacket.