This magnificent volume provides a complete history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day, taking us beyond traditional definitions of ‘literature' into the world of the best-seller and, beyond words, to graphic fiction and cinema Presents a definitive history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day. Incorporates coverage of Francophone writing in Europe, Canada, the West Indies and North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Links the development of literature to the mentalities and social conditions which produced it. Takes us beyond “literature” to study graphic fiction, cinema and the bestseller. Maps the rise of the Intellectual, and in so doing charts a progression from literary doctrine to critical theory.

Publisher Description

What is Literature? challenges anyone who writes as if literature could be extricated from history or society. But Sartre does more than indict. He offers a definitive statement about the phenomenology of reading, and he goes on to provide a dashing example of how to write a history of literature that takes ideology and institutions into account.

This magnificent volume provides a complete history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day, taking us beyond traditional definitions of ‘literature' into the world of the best-seller and, beyond words, to graphic fiction and cinema Presents a definitive history of the literature of France from its origins to the present day. Incorporates coverage of Francophone writing in Europe, Canada, the West Indies and North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Links the development of literature to the mentalities and social conditions which produced it. Takes us beyond “literature” to study graphic fiction, cinema and the bestseller. Maps the rise of the Intellectual, and in so doing charts a progression from literary doctrine to critical theory.

The most comprehensive history of literature written in French ever produced in English.