After the Deluge: New Perspectives on the Intellectual and Cultural History of Postwar France (After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0739107925 ISBN 13: 9780739107928

Publisher: Lexington Books, 2004

Synopsis

Madame de Pompadour's famous quip, 'Apr_s nous, le deluge,' serves as fitting inspiration for this lively discussion of postwar French intellectual and cultural life. Over the past thirty years, North American and European scholarship has been significantly transformed by the absorption of poststructuralist and postmodernist theories from French thinkers. But Julian Bourg's seamlessly edited volume proves that, historically speaking, French intellecutal and cultural life since World War Two has involved much more than a few infamous figures and concepts. Motivated by a desire to narrate and contextualize the deluge of 'French theory,' After the Deluge showcases recent work by today's brightest scholars of French intellectual history that historicizes key debates, figures, and turning points in the postwar era of French thought. Relying on primary and archival sources, contributors examine, among other themes: left-wing critiques of the Left, the internationalizing of thought, the institutional and affective conditions of cultural life, and the religious imagination. They revive neglected debates and figures, and they explore the larger impact of political quarrels. In an afterword, preeminent French historian Fran_ois Dosse heralds the arrival of a new generation, a historiographical sensibility that brings fresh, original perspectives and a passion for French history to the contemporary French intellectual arena. After the Deluge adds significant depth and breadth to our understanding of postwar French intellectual and cultural history.

About this title

About the Author:

Julian Bourg is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Washington University in St. Louis.

Review:

American historians have neglected the study of postwar French intellectual and cultural life for nearly twenty years. . . . This book is a breath of fresh air. I couldn't let go of it. (Marie-Pierre Le Hir, Professor and Chair, Department of French and Italian, University of Arizona)

After the Deluge promises to be an important book in the field of French and Francophone Studies. (Aurelian Craiutu, Indiana University, Bloomington, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science)

a valuable work and a useful read. (H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online, March 2008)

Instead, the book is successful in presenting an alternative picture of the postwar French intellectual landscape, rich in details and carefully researched. (Stephanie B. Martens, University of Alberta H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online)

These essays will challenge preconceptions and offer new vantage points from which to assess contemporary French thought. Recommended. (CHOICE)

About this edition

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0739107925
• ISBN 13: 9780739107928
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 434
• Editor: Bourg Julian