Affaires de Famille: The Family in Contemporary French Culture and Theory

Front Cover
Marie-Claire Barnet, Edward Welch
Rodopi, 2007 - Family & Relationships - 347 pages
'Famille, je vous ai (encore et toujours à l'esprit?), je vous aime un peu, beaucoup, ou je vous hais énormément?' What are families like in contemporary France? And what begins to emerge when we consider them from the point of view of recent theoretical perspectives: (faulty) cohesion, (fake) coherence, (carefully planned or subversive) deconstruction, loss (of love, confidence or credibility), or, even (utter) chaos and (alarming) confusion? Which media revamp old stereotypes, generate alternative reinterpretations, and imply more ambiguous answers? What images, scenes or frames stand out in contemporary representations of the family? Uneasy contradictions and ambiguities emerge in this bilingual collection of approaches and genre studies. The family plot seems to thicken as family ties appear to loosen. Has 'the family' been lost from sight, or is it being reinvented in our collective imaginary? This book proposes a new series of perspectives and questions on an old and 'familiar' topic, exploring the state and status of the family in contemporary literature, culture, critical and psychoanalytic theory and sociology.
 

Contents

Darrieussecq
43
Ndiaye
51
Conclusion
57
Shame and interest as linked affects and their place in family life
121
Shame as a social affect
125
The dynamics of shame and interest in La Honte and La Femme gelée
127
Using shame
131
La métalepse majeure de lautofiction
141
La communauté langagière de la douleur
143
Du nom du père
147
Whiteauthored films
211
Child Death in Recent French Literature
267
Copyright

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