Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Golsan, Richard J.

Titel

The Politics of French Literary History in the US and France Today

Ist Teil von

• SubStance, 2003, Vol.32 (3), p.19-28

Ort / Verlag

Baltimore: University of Wisconsin Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• [...]of these and other changes, national literatures and the political, social and cultural forces that shape them have experienced seismic shifts, to the point that in many instances they can no longer be labeled "national," in the traditional sense. What one non-academic critic later melodramatically described as "the fall of de Man" (who was, of course, already dead by the time the controversy began) certainly helped encourage a new "age of suspicion," which meant that writers' politics and political commitments often became the key to understanding their aesthetic or critical practices. [...]because De Man's past raised the suspicion that intellectual and cultural modernity were tainted by fascism, the works of many reactionary and fascist writers were subject to greater criticalscrutiny in literature departments in the US. According to Sabine Loucif, a strong interest in, and commitment to, feminism and women's studies in American French departments has generated considerable interest in Annie Ernaux and Hélène Cixous, whereas the vogue of gay studies and queer theory has made the writings of Hervé Guibert popular subjects of dissertations. [...]this type of argument runs the risk of anachronism. [...]it leaves to the side important issues that also shape the "canon," such as the degree to which a reader's tastes, experiences, and background—and not just literary vogues—also determine the texts that he or she finds compelling, and the extent to which it is possible to argue that particular works are innately valuable as literature, and therefore worthy of inclusion.