Identity Papers

Contested Nationhood in Twentieth-Century France

1996

Steven Ungar and Tom Conley, editors

Examines the interplay of national identity and cultural practices in France today.

What does citizenship mean? The essays in this volume range in subject from fiction and essay to architecture and film. Among the topics discussed are the 1937 Exposition Universelle; films dealing with Vichy France; François Truffaut’s Histoire d’Adèle H.; the war of Algerian independence; and nation building under François Mitterrand.

Contributors: Anne Donadey, U of Iowa; Elizabeth Ezra, U of Stirling, Scotland; Richard J. Golsan, Texas A&M; Lynn A. Higgins, Dartmouth College; T. Jefferson Kline, Boston U; Panivong Norindr, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Shanny Peer, New York U; Rosemarie Scullion, U of Iowa; David H. Slavin; Philip H. Solomon; Florianne Wild, U of Alabama.

“This volume explores not only French nationhood, but also recent reorientations of French studies in the US.” The French Review

What does citizenship mean? What is the process of “naturalization” one goes through in becoming a citizen, and what is its connection to assimilation? How do the issues of identity raised by this process manifest themselves in culture? These questions, and the way they arise in contemporary France, are the focus of this diverse collection.

The essays in this volume range in subject from fiction and essay to architecture and film. Among the topics discussed are the 1937 Exposition Universelle; films dealing with Vichy France; François Truffaut’s Histoire d’Adèle H.; the war of Algerian independence; and nation building under François Mitterrand.

Contributors: Anne Donadey, U of Iowa; Elizabeth Ezra, U of Stirling, Scotland; Richard J. Golsan, Texas A&M; Lynn A. Higgins, Dartmouth College; T. Jefferson Kline, Boston U; Panivong Norindr, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Shanny Peer, New York U; Rosemarie Scullion, U of Iowa; David H. Slavin; Philip H. Solomon; Florianne Wild, U of Alabama.

Steven Ungar is professor of cinema and comparative literature at the University of Iowa and author of Scandal and Aftereffect: Blanchot and France since 1930 (Minnesota, 1995). Tom Conley is professor of French at Harvard University (for a full biography, see page 15).

Steven Ungar is professor of cinema and comparative literature at the University of Iowa and author of Scandal and Aftereffect: Blanchot and France since 1930.

Tom Conley is professor of French at Harvard University. Among his other books are Film Hieroglyphs, as well as translations of The Fold by Gilles Deleuze and The Year of Passages by Reda Bensmaia, All of these books are published by the University of Minnesota Press.

“This volume explores not only French nationhood, but also recent reorientations of French studies in the US.” The French Review