Nottingham French Studies

Founded in 1961, Nottingham French Studies publishes articles in English and French and themed special numbers covering all of the major fields of the discipline literature, culture, postcolonial studies, gender studies, film and visual studies, translation, thought, history, politics, linguistics and all historical periods from medieval to the 21st century. The journals Editorial Board is composed of the members of the Department of French and Francophone studies at the University of Nottingham, supported by an international Advisory Board. Through the publication of general and special numbers covering a range of thematic and theoretical perspectives, the journal aims to represent established as well as new and emerging areas of research in the field of French studies.

How are photographs understood as narratives? In this book twenty-two original critical essays tackle this overarching question in a series of case studies moving chronologically across the history of photography from the 1840s to the twenty-first century. The contributors explore the intersections of photography with history, memory, autobiography, time, death, mapping, the discourse of Orientalism, digital technology, and representations of race and gender. The essays range in focus from the role of photographic images in the memorialization of the Holocaust, the Argentine "Dirty Warm," and Japanese American internment camps through Man Ray's classic image "Noire et blanche" and Nan Goldin's "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" to the function of family albums in nineteenth-century England and America.

In a provocative 1985 cover story featuring the face of Marianne obscured by an Islamic veil, Le Figaro Magazine asked: "Serons-nous encore français dans trente ans?". With those thirty years now spanned, where does France stand in relation to the fears, challenges and opportunities associated with changing perceptions of ethnic and cultural diversity within and beyond the nation's borders? Is the France of 2015 still French in the same way or to the same degree as the France of 1985? Where do the most significant challenges to "Frenchness" now lie? In Islamism? In the "banlieues"? In European integration? In American hegemony? Is "Frenchness" itself, championed by political elites under the banner of "l'exception culturelle", an outmoded concept, destined to wither in the face of transnational forces? These are among the issues addressed by contributors to this volume, spanning a wide range of topics and disciplinary approaches including politics, literature, film and sport.

The contributors to Transnational French Studies situate this disciplinary subfield of Modern Languages in actively transnational frameworks. The key objective of the volume is to define the core set of skills and methodologies that constitute the study of French culture as a transnational, transcultural and translingual phenomenon. Written by leading scholars within the field, chapters demonstrate the type of inquiry that can be pursued into the transnational realities – both material and non-material – that are integral to what is referred to as French culture. The book considers the transnational dimensions of being human in the world by focussing on four key practices which constitute the object of study for students of French: language and multilingualism; the construction of transcultural places and the corresponding sense of space; the experience of time; and transnational subjectivities. The underlying premise of the volume is that the transnational is present (and has long been present) throughout what we define as French history and culture. Chapters address instances and phenomena associated with the transnational, from prehistory to the present, opening up the geopolitical map of French studies beyond France and including sites where communities identified as French have formed.

French Studies in and for the 21st Century draws together a range of key scholars to examine the current state of French Studies in the UK, taking account of the variety of factors which have made the discipline what it is. The book looks ahead to the place of French Studies in a world that is increasingly interdisciplinary, and where student demands, new technologies and transnational education are changing the ways in which we learn, teach, research and assess. Required reading for all UK French Studies scholars, the book will also be an essential text for the French Studies community worldwide as it grapples with current demands and plans for the future.

With contributions from leading scholars across the entire range of French studies, this up-to-date volume examines both the current state of French studies in the United Kingdom, as well as its future in an increasingly interdisciplinary world where student demand, new technologies, and developments in transnational education are changing the ways in which we teach, learn, research and assess achievements. Required reading for French studies scholars worldwide, this volume builds upon the findings of the influential Review of Modern Foreign Languages Provision in Higher Education and maps the present and future of the field.