The Cambridge History of French Literature edited by William Burgwinkle, Nicholas Hammond, and Emma Wilson (review)

This volume comprises seventy-seven essays, by as many contributors, covering topics pertaining to the history of French literature, in a chronological development beginning with manuscripts and manuscript culture and ending with film and new media. Few other histories of French literature have marshalled the expertise of a comparable body of mostly British- and American-based scholars. Research-led, each essay is written by an expert in the field, and, with individual contributions averaging between nine and ten pages, they represent considerable feats of concision. The length of the essays is one of the volume’s principal strengths, since it allows the contributor sufficient scope to explore his or her topic in some detail while still fulfilling the volume’s primary function as a reference guide. The book thus differs from existing companions or histories of French literature, such as The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French, edited by Peter France (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995) (see French Studies, 60 (1997), 107), although the longer, more general entries in the latter anticipate the scope of the essays in this volume. The Short History of French Literature by Sarah Kay, Terence Cave, and Malcolm Bowie (Oxford: OUP, 2003) (see French Studies, 58 (2004), 391), remarkably, rivals it in coverage, but, while the Cambridge History identifies key topics to be traced throughout its pages (writing in/from the periphery, popular culture, and memory and testimony, among others), it does not share the Short History’s concern to discern continuities characteristic of a uniquely French literature. The present work will prove invaluable to undergraduates and to teachers seeking to introduce their students to core texts and contexts of French literature, as well as to researchers looking to identify the principal works and critical reference points within individual fields. Some essays aim to present a comprehensive chronological overview of a period or genre, describing the main texts and authors and outlining their past and present critical reception. Informative and useful, the best of these balance a general account of that period or genre’s characteristics with more developed exploration of specific texts, illustrating the issues at stake. Other contributions undertake a more thematic approach, following particular motifs in the body of texts in question with an emphasis that is as much critical as historical. Essays in this category include ‘Saints’ Lives, Violence, and Community’ (Emma Campbell) and ‘Women Writers, Artists, and Filmmakers’ (Emma Wilson). The category of ‘Modern French Thought’ might usefully have been further subdivided and treated over a number of essays, although Colin Davis’s essay on that topic is admirably broad-ranging and thought-provoking. This important volume provides an excellent snapshot of contemporary research interests in the field of French literature. However, given the length of time between the publications of such histories, these interests will inevitably date. The volume’s Introduction could have gone further in acknowledging this, as well as identifying the overarching intellectual rationale motivating the choice of the twelve key topics outlined. A brief list of further reading at the end of each essay would also have been welcome.