New Visions and Re-Visions in 20th and 21st Century French Literature

Abstract

In the twentieth century, the “death of the author” was proclaimed by literary critics. Since then, there has been a shift in focus from text to reader. This reorientation called forth changing critical paradigms, taking us from modernism to postmodernism and beyond... This introductory material is available in Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol36/iss1/2 New Visions and Re-Visions in 20th and 21st Century French Literature Eileen M. Angelini Canisius College In the twentieth century, the “death of the author” was proclaimed by literary critics. Since then, there has been a shift in focus from text to reader. This reorientation called forth changing critical paradigms, taking us from modernism to postmodernism and beyond. New ideologies shaped readeroriented theories and opened up the field for feminism, gender and identity studies, as well as cultural studies. An ever-growing field of interdisciplinary approaches began to emerge, linking literature to the arts, psychology, philosophy, and the neurosciences. Moreover, compelling political and social events left their mark, one of the most significant being the expansion of the Francophone world, which forever changed the landscape of French letters. Not only reading but writing was changing as well, as authors introduced new forms and techniques, rethought the very nature of and boundaries between genres, engaged in intertextual play, and were unafraid to cross borders. We have come a long way from the turn of the last century to the start of the second decade of the present one and have been exposed to many changes in the field of literary studies. It is, therefore, relevant to stand back and take a comprehensive view of the new ways of seeing, or, as Nelson Goodman would say, new ways of worldmaking. It is equally essential to take another look at writers whose reputation was established early on in the twentieth century in order to assess their reception in the twenty-first century. Conversely, it behooves us to consider why some authors who did not fare so well in the previous century are now read with interest. As we set out to examine twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone literature, we include texts that look back at the past and 1 Angelini: New Visions and Re-Visions in 20th and 21st Century French Litera Published by New Prairie Press