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This volume will be of interest to everyone seeking to understand the relationship between war as an historical narrative and its representation in the arts and in culture, notably in literature, film, theatre and music. More specifically, it will be of the greatest interest to undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and academics in a wide range of disciplines, including literary studies, film and drama studies, music, and history. The Introduction, by Jay Winter, sets the context, particularly with reference to the First World War, while the Conclusion summarises the significance of the research undertaken and its value for future research. This book will also have an impact on writers, publishers and organizers of exhibitions, museums, memorial sites and monuments whose influence in the field of war and memory has been increasing steadily in recent years. The imminent celebrations and commemorations pertaining to the Great War, beginning in 2014, together with the imminence of the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 2015, will provide additional stimuli to public attention in this area over the next few years.
The public understanding of law is gleaned from the cultural representation of justice which, in turn, reflects popular culture. Movies, caricatures, portrayal of trials by media or crime fiction shape the image of justice. However these representations play an important role in the legal system itself through the representation of truth as conveyed by litigating parties in their arguments. Studying how justice is represented in society is thus interesting for citizens who want to understand the popular culture but also for lawyers who want to understand theirs clients' expectations. This book explores in a multidisciplinary way the aspects of those representations of justice in their various forms in popular culture and in economics.
This book examines a set of theoretical perspectives that critically engage with the notion of postmodernism, investigating whether this concept is still useful to approach contemporary cinema. This question is explored through a discussion of the films written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, largely regarded as the epitome of postmodern cinema and considered here as theoretical contributions in their own right. Each chapter first presents key ideas proposed by a specific theorist and then puts them in conversation with Tarantino’s films. Jacques Rancière’s theory of art is used to reject postmodernism’s claims about the ‘death’ of the aesthetic image in contemporary cinema. Fredric Jameson’s and Slavoj Žižek’s dialectical thinking is mobilized to challenge simplistic, ideological readings of postmodern cinema in general, and Tarantino’s films in particular. Finally, the direct influence of Carol Clover’s psychoanalytical approach to the horror genre on Tarantino’s work is discussed to prove the director’s specific contribution to a theoretical understanding of contemporary film aesthetics.
In Beyond Return, Lucas Hollister examines the political orientations of fictions which 'return' to forms that have often been considered sub-literary, regressive, outdated or decadent, and suggests new ways of reading contemporary adventure novels, radical noir novels, postmodernist mysteries, war novels and dystopian fictions.
Through a close reading of seven literary memoirs of the Nazi Occupation of France, Refiguring Les Années Noires: Literary Representations of the Nazi Occupation shows how the memory of the period has been shaped by political and social factors. An interdisciplinary study incorporating trauma theory, history, and folklore studies, this book examines representations of the Occupation by a diverse group of writers ranging from a female Resistance fighter to one of the first French Roma novelists. The methodological diversity of the volume brings to the fore each author’s unique perspective and demonstrates that their works are at once historically and artistically significant. Above all, this book gives voice to groups whose experiences in occupied France have largely been forgotten.
Unwilling Executioner is the first book to examine the deep-rooted relationship between the development of crime fiction as a genre and the consolidation of the modern state. It offers a far-reaching and wide-ranging perspective on this unfolding relationship over a three hundred year period but is not a straightforward and conventional narrative history of the genre. It is part of a new and exciting critical move to read crime fiction as a transnationalphenomenon and to examine crime novelists in an innovative comparative context, taking them out of their discreet national traditions. Considers Anglo-American crime-writing, as well as works published inFrance, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Japan, South Africa and elsewhere, it addresses the related questions of why crime fiction is political and how particular examples of the genre engage with the complicated issue of political commitment.
This volume presents the intellectual autobiographies of fourteen leading scholars in the fields of history, literature, film and cultural studies who have dedicated a considerable part of their career to researching the history and memories of France during the Second World War. Basedin five different countries, Margaret Atack, Marc Dambre, Laurent Douzou, Hilary Footitt, Robert Gildea, Richard J. Golsan, Bertram M. Gordon, Christopher Lloyd, Colin Nettelbeck, Denis Peschanski, Renée Poznanski, Henry Rousso, Peter Tame, and Susan Rubin Suleiman have playeda crucial role in shaping and reshaping what has become a thought-provoking field of research. This volume, which also includes an interview with historian Robert O. Paxton, clarifies the rationales and driving forces behind their work and thus behind our current understanding of one of the darkest and most vividly remembered pages of history in contemporary France.
When Agatha Christie died in 1976, she was the bestselling mystery writer in history. This collection of new essays brings fresh perspectives to Christie scholarship with new readings and discussions of little-known aspects of her life, career and legacy. The contributors explore her relationship with modernism, the relevance of queer theory, television adaptations, issues with translations, information behavior theory, feminist readings, postcolonial tribute novels, celebrity culture and heritage cinema. The final word is given to fans in an editorial that collates testimonies from readers, collectors and enthusiasts.
In Origins and Legacies of Marcel Duhamel’s Série Noire Alistair Rolls, Clara Sitbon and Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan counter the myths and received wisdom that are typically associated with this iconic French crime fiction series, namely: that it was born in Paris on a tide of postwar euphoria; that it initially consisted of translations of American hard-boiled classics by the likes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; and that the translations were rushed and rather approximate. Instead, an alternative vision of Duhamel’s translation practice is proposed, one based on a French tradition of auto-, or “original”, translation of “ostensibly” American crime fiction, and one that appropriates the source text in order to create an allegory of the target culture.
What separates the chaos of fighting from the coherent ritual of boxing? According to author David Scott, it is a collection of aesthetic constructions, including the shape of the ring, the predictable rhythm of timed rounds, the uniformity of the boxers? glamorous attire, and the stylization of the combatants? posture and punches. In The Art and Aesthetics of Boxing, Scott explores the ways in which these and other aesthetic elements of the sport have evolved over time. Scott comprehensively addresses the rich dialogue between boxing and the arts, suggesting that boxing not only possesses intrinsic aesthetic qualities but also has inspired painters, graphic designers, surrealist poets, and ...