Chanter la Grande Guerre: les Poilus” et les femmes (1914– 1919) par Anne Simon-Carrère (review)

Norman brides over the next several years. This work is a collection of selections, presented in English translation, from diaries and journals written by French citizens and situated in historical context. The impressions of most Americans concerning the invasion are largely shaped by the work of professional journalists and photographers. The tone of these first-person accounts, written by non-professionals, is personal and heartfelt. The selections are compelling evidence of both the sufferings and the contributions of the Norman civilians. For both general readers and specialists, the work adds an important dimension to the history of the D-Day invasion. Southeast Missouri State University Alice J. Strange Simon-Carrère, Anne. Chanter la Grande Guerre: les “Poilus” et les femmes (1914– 1919). Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2014. ISBN 978-2-87673-928-4. Pp. 288. 25 a. Simon-Carrère presents an excellent study of societal attitudes reflected in popular music in France during the Great War. In particular, the book focuses on popular musical representations of male-female relations and the impact of the war upon them. In Chanter la Grande Guerre, Simon-Carrère engages in an analysis of songs written for venues such as the music-hall and the café-concert in the context of events and cultural trends of the First World War, for example, the exuberant patriotism of the pre- and early war years, the emotional pain of male-female separation, the physical and psychological trauma of disfigurement or dismemberment, the change in women’s roles in society, and an ever-growing war weariness as the conflict dragged on, along with the impact of these events and trends on the personal lives of, and relationships between, the men and women who experienced them. The book’s content is firmly set on several important methodological foundations. First, there is the scope of the research. Simon-Carrère sifted through more than 30,000 songs submitted to the Paris censors during the war years. Her analysis of these songs targets not only those works that successfully passed the censors, but also those which required revision or else were rejected. The examination of the reasons for revision and rejection are just as illuminating as the study of what met with the censors’ approval. Second is the book’s chronological element. Simon-Carrère does not present the composition of these songs as static phenomena reflecting monolithic attitudes throughout the war. Rather, she emphasizes how songs demonstrate evolutions in attitude as the war progressed. Third, Simon-Carrère employs a synthetic documentary approach, linking the attitudes expressed in the songs to those formulated in letters, official papers, memoirs, and visual icons such as photos, postcards, sheet music cover pages and posters, rendered in black-and-white in the book. The songs are not studied in isolation, but rather as a significant component of a larger cultural framework. Finally, the songs are presented both as reflection and as propaganda. In other words, the author recognizes that the songs simultaneously informed, and were informed by, 254 FRENCH REVIEW 89.2 Reviews 255 societal attitudes toward the various facets of men’s and women’s experience of the conflict. On these foundations, Simon-Carrère has written a book that is not only informative, but also very readable. While the content of the book is worth the attention of any scholar of French culture and society of the First World War, its stylistic readability makes the book accessible to a less specialized readership as well. Ohio University Christopher Coski Wilder, Gary. Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2015. ISBN 978-0-8223-5850-3. Pp. 384. $26.30. Wilder’s book is not only a must-read text for those who are interested in critical theory and intellectual history, but also an insightful inquiry with great scholarly depth.Among numerous critical approaches, Freedom Time can be read as a romantic vision of Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor’s aesthetics and politics. Wilder’s investigations aim at showing these thinkers’unapologetic desire to stay within and to defend a reformed French empire as an alternative to national independence. The book is...