David Platten

Jean-Pierre Boulé

Michel Tournier is a writer who explores complex philosophical questions in the guise of concrete, imagistic narratives. This comprehensive study privileges the notion of literary reference, by which the world of text is understood or experienced in metaphorical relation to the world outside of it. Metaphor, in the context of Tournier’s fiction, shows how the fantastic merges with the real to provide new perspectives on many diverse aspects of the modern world: the Crusoe myth, Nazism, the value to society of art and religion, and the nature of education. This book elucidates an aesthetic of Tournier’s fiction that encompasses the writer’s stated ambition to ‘go beyond literature’.

Voices of the Self

Hervé Guibert

Ce livre est le premier à proposer une analyse complète de toute l'œuvre d'Hervé Guibert (1955-1991). Les textes de Guibert étant souvent en porte-à-faux entre plusieurs genres, Jean-Pierre Boulé a dû créer ses propres catégories, tout en se laissant guider par une approche chronologique. L'œuvre de Guibert est étudiée selon des paramètres que l'on retrouve dans plusieurs de ses textes : fiction/vérité, le moi/autrui, le roman/les autres formes littéraires, le corps/le texte, trahison/amitié. Boulé tisse un lien entre les divers écrits de Guibert, établissant un dialogue interne autour de la problématique de l'entreprise de l'écriture du moi, notamment par le biais des rapports entre Guibert et le genre du roman, ainsi que par les diverses manières d'écrire le moi. Selon Boulé, Guibert crée le genre du roman faux avec A l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie. Ce travail s'achève avec l'étude de la totalité de la production artistique de Guibert une fois qu'il est séropositif, toujours dans l'optique de l'écriture du moi.

l'entreprise de l'écriture du moi

Hervé Guibert A l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie

Published on the occasion of Sartre's Centenary, this book helps to understand the man behind the work, offering a psycho-social analysis of Jean-Paul Sartre with an emphasis on his masculinity. It sets out to contextualize Sartre in terms of his psycho-sexual formation and processes of self-constitution in view of his childhood. The main period under detailed study is 1905-1945, before Sartre became the Sartre. It concentrates on his early childhood, his teenage years in La Rochelle, the years at the Ecole Normale, and the first few years of his adulthood, with specific attention on the war years. An analysis of Sartre's relationships follows, with Simone de Beauvoir and other women and men (including love and sex), before a postscript covering the period 1973-1980. This essay is not a reductive account. It tells the story of Jean-Paul Sartre, from the inside out, so that the achievements of one of the major intellectuals of the 20th Century can be measured against his own internal struggles.

Sartre, Self-formation and Masculinities

Elizabeth A. Kaye specializes in communications as part of her coaching and consulting practice. She has edited Requirements for Certification since the 2000-01 edition.

The Archaeology of AIDS Writing in France, 1985-1988

HIV Stories

Ursula Tidd

Simone de Beauvoir's work has not often been associated with film studies, which appears paradoxical when it is recognized that she was the first feminist thinker to inaugurate the concept of the gendered 'othering' gaze. This book is an attempt to redress this balance and reopen the dialogue between Beauvoir's writings and film studies. The authors analyse a range of films, from directors including Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Sam Mendes, and Sally Potter, by drawing from Beauvoir's key works such as The Second Sex (1949), The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and Old Age (1970).

A Beauvoirian Perspective

Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema

This is the first full-length study to cover the complete texts of Hervé Guibert (1955-1991), offering a thorough documentation of his literary output. The book is guided by Guibert's relation to the novel, a major line of enquiry throughout, as well as his experimentation with voices in particular. One of Boulé's main contentions is that Guibert arrives at the creation of a new literary genre, the roman faux, with the publication of his best-known work To the Friend who did not save my life. The book ends by considering the works Guibert produced after he was diagnosed as HIV positive, within the parameter of the voices of the self.

Enda McCaffrey

At the heart of this volume is the assertion that Sartrean existentialism, most prominent in the 1940s, particularly in France, is still relevant as a way of interpreting the world today. Film, by reflecting philosophical concerns in the actions and choices of characters, continues and extends a tradition in which art exemplifies the understanding of existentialist philosophy. In a scholarly yet accessible style, the contributors exploit the rich interplay between Sartre's philosophy, plays and novels, and a number of contemporary films including No Country for Old Men, Lost in Translation and The Truman Show, with film-makers including the Dardenne brothers, Michael Haneke, and Mike Leigh. This volume will be of interest to students who are coming to Sartre's work for the first time and to those who would like to read films within an existentialist perspective.

A Sartrean Perspective

Simone de Beauvoir's work has not often been associated with film studies. This is paradoxical when it is recognized that she was the first feminist thinker to inaugurate the concept of the gendered "othering" gaze. Moreover, other concepts associated with Beauvoirian existentialism such as ambiguity, gendered alienation, situated freedom, and woman as absolute Other are highly suggestive for reading screen culture. This book is an attempt to redress this balance and reopen the dialogue between Beauvoir's writings and film studies. The authors analyze a range of films, from directors including Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Sam Mendes, and Sally Potter, by drawing from Beauvoir's key works such as The Second Sex (1949),The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947),and Old Age (1970). The breadth of this book demonstrates the extent to which "existential" themes transcend space and time, continue to resonate with contemporary stars and film directors, and add value and meaning to the basic questions about human existence, and the quest for "authenticity."

Jean-Pierre Boule

Sartre, Self-formation, and Masculinities

Hervé Guibert, A L'ami Qui Ne M'a Pas Sauvé la Vie and Other Writings

Taking a panoramic approach to the oeuvre of a major French writer who died of AIDS in 1991, and treating his post-diagnosis work separately, Boule (French studies, Nottingham Trent U.) concludes that Guilbert created a new literary genre, the roman faux, with the publication of his 17th book: To the Friend who did not save my life (1990)--scandalous due to its alleged portrayal of philosopher Michel Foucault's dying of AIDS. References are mostly in French. Indexed by name only. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Benedict O’Donohoe

Jean-Paul Sartre: Mind and Body, Word and Deed celebrates Sartre’s polyvalence with an examination of Sartrean philosophy, literature, and politics. In four distinct yet related sections, twelve scholars from three continents examine Sartre’s thought, writing and action over his long career. “Sartre and the Body” reappraises Sartre’s work in dialogue with other philosophers past and present, including Maine de Biran, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Didier Anzieu. “Sartre and Time” offers a first-hand account by Michel Contat of Sartre and Beauvoir working together, and a “philosophy in practice” analysis by François Noudelmann. “Ideology and Politics” uses Sartrean notions of commitment and engagement to address modern and contemporary politics, including insights into Castro, De Gaulle, Sarkozy and Obama. Finally, an important but neglected episode of Sartre’s life—the visit that he and Beauvoir made to Japan in 1966—is narrated with verve and humour by Professor Suzuki Michihiko, who first met Sartre during that visit and remained in touch subsequently. Taken together, these twelve chapters make a strong case for the continued relevance of Sartre today.

Jean-Pierre Boulé

Books

Your next favorite book is out there