Claire Gorrara

Helmut Peitsch

Charles Burdett

During the fifty years since the end of hostilities, European literary memories of the war have undergone considerable change, influenced by the personal experiences of writers as well as changing political, social, and cultural factors. This volume examines changing ways of remembering the war in the literatures of France, Germany, and Italy; changes in the subject of memory, and in the relations between fiction, autobiography, and documentary, with the focus being on the extent to which shared European memories of the war have been constructed.

European Memories of the Second World War

Heiko Feldner

Kevin Passmore

This volume of essays explores the social, political and cultural legacies of a decade which has, until relatively recently, received scant scholarly attention. Sandwiched uncomfortably between the traumatic events of the Second World War and the dramatic changes of the 1960s, the 1950s appeared as seemingly transitional years, while they were in fact an astonishingly fecund period of reassessment and experimentation when traditional models were re-evaluated and new models were road-tested, to be either developed or rejected. An important intervention in the dynamic scholarly re-examination of the 1950s, this volume analyzes these years in relation to three broadly defined areas: historiography, politics and society, and culture. What emerges from all three parts of the volume is a vision of the 1950s as a decade which was to have a profound impact on post-war European identities in two key respects: as a time of accelerated European intellectual exchange and as a time of fertile receptivity to the ‘new’, variously formulated and contested across and within national borders. Written by experts in the field, the contributions to this volume represent some of the most exciting work on the 1950s currently being undertaken in Europe and the US. They combine high intellectual standards with accessibility and will appeal to academics, students and the general reader alike.

The Lost Decade? The 1950s in European History, Politics, Society and Culture

This study explores France’s preoccupation with memories of the Second World War through an examination of popular culture and one of its more enduring forms, crime fiction. It examines what such popular narratives have to tell us about past and present perceptions of the war years in France and how they relate to post-war debates over memory, culture and national identity. Starting with narratives of the Resistance in the late 1940s and concluding with contemporary crime fiction for younger readers, Gorrara examines popular memories of the Second World War in dialogue with the changing social, cultural and political contexts of remembrance in post-war France. From memories of the persecution of Jews and French collaboration to the legacies of the concentration camps and the figure of the survivor-witness, all the crime novels discussed grapple with the challenges of what it means to live in the shadow of such a past for generations past, present and future.

Past crimes, present memories

French crime fiction and the Second World War

This book is one of the first English-language studies to chart the development of crime fiction in French from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It analyses the distinctive features of a French-language tradition and introduces readers to a rich and varied body of work. Each chapter examines a specific period, movement or group of writers, as well as engaging with wider debates on the place of crime fiction within contemporary French and European culture. From early twentieth-century pioneers, such as Gaston Leroux and Maurice Leblanc, to the phenomenal success of Georges Simenon, from May 68 to the gender politics of crime fiction and postmodern reinventions, this collection approaches crime fiction in an interdisciplinary manner, alive to the innovative and often critically informed perspective it provides on French society and culture. The book also includes short extracts in English translation and an extensive bibliography of critical material for further reading. Such resources are aimed at encouraging the reader to gain a greater appreciation and understanding of this potent and formidable narrative of modern times.

French Crime Fiction

For several decades, a political discourse, which incites exclusion and hatred against those who are perceived as different, has been gaining ground, most notably in affluent and developed countries. Racism is back, and antiracism is no longer accepted as an argument that suffices in itself. Focusing on the growth of racism in large cities and urban areas, this volume represents views by scholars from around the world, who work in different social sciences, on the one hand; on the other, it offers statements by non-practicing academics such as culture brokers, journalists and. The book is conceived in such a way that the contributions of the scientists and the non-academic specialists are grouped around common themes, highlighting existing debates and bringing together widely scattered information. Labour politics, cultural selectionism, separate education for minorities and majorities and other projects point in the direction of more exclusion and racism. Community work, intercultural education and political organization of religious practices explore alternative avenues.

Claire (Senior Lecturer in French Gorrara, Cardiff University)

Populist and widely disseminated, the French roman noir has a reputation as a minor genre with its roots in American popular culture. This study challenges such preconceptions and examines the genre as a critical response to concerns and debates in post-war French society

Claire Gorrara

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