What is 'the literary fantastic' and how does it manifest itself in the texts of French and francophone women writers publishing at the close of the twentieth and start of the twenty-first century? What do we mean today when we talk of 'the real' and 'realism'? These are just some of the questions addressed by the papers in this volume which derive from a conference entitled 'The Fantastic in Contemporary Women's Writing in French' held in London in September 2007. This book sets out to refocus through a non-realist lens on the works of high-profile authors (Darrieussecq, Nothomb, Germain, Cixous and NDiaye) and some of their less highly publicised contemporaries. It analyses and mobilises a wide range of both gendered and non-gendered practices and theories of 'the contemporary fantastic' whilst critically inter-rogating both of the latter terms and their inter-relation.

In the first major study of representations of World War II in French crime fiction, Margaret-Anne Hutton draws on a corpus of over a hundred and fifty texts spanning more than sixty years. Included are well-known writers (male and female) such as Aubert, Simenon, Boileau-Narcejak, Vargas, Daeninckx, and Jonquet, as well as a broad range of lesser-known authors. Hutton's introduction situates her study within the larger framework of literary representations of World War II, setting the stage for her discussions of genre; the problem of defining crimes and criminals in the context of the war; the epistemological issues that arise in the relationship between World War II historiography and the crime novel; and the temporal textures linking past crimes to the present. Filling a gap in the fields of crime fiction and fictional representations of the War, Hutton's book calls into question the way both crime fiction and the French theatre of World War II have been conceptualized and codified.

This interdisciplinary study intergrates historiographical, literary and cultural methodologies in its focus on a little known corpus of testimonial accounts published by French women deported to Nazi camps. Comprising epistemological and literary analyses of the accounts and an examination of the construction of deportee identities, it will interest those working in the fields of modern French literature, genre, women's studies and the Holocaust.

Readings in Twenty-First-Century European Literatures brings together analyses of post-2000 literary works from twelve European literatures. Sharing a common aim - that of taking the first step in identifying and analysing some of the emergent trends in contemporary European literatures - scholars from across Europe come together in this volume to address a range of issues. Topics include the post-postmodern; the effect of new media on literary production; the relationship between history, fiction and testimony; migrant writing and world literature; representation of ageing and intersexuality; life in hypermodernity; translation, both linguistic and cultural; and the institutional forces at work in the production and reception of twenty-first-century texts. Reading across the twenty chapters affords an opportunity to reconsider what is meant by both 'European' and 'contemporary literature' and to recontextualize single-discipline perspectives in a comparatist framework.

In the first major study of representations of World War II in French crime fiction, Margaret-Anne Hutton draws on a corpus of over a hundred and fifty texts spanning more than sixty years. Included are well-known writers (male and female) such as Aubert, Simenon, Boileau-Narcejak, Vargas, Daeninckx, and Jonquet, as well as a broad range of lesser-known authors. Hutton's introduction situates her study within the larger framework of literary representations of World War II, setting the stage for her discussions of genre; the problem of defining crimes and criminals in the context of the war; the epistemological issues that arise in the relationship between World War II historiography and the crime novel; and the temporal textures linking past crimes to the present. Filling a gap in the fields of crime fiction and fictional representations of the War, Hutton's book calls into question the way both crime fiction and the French theatre of World War II have been conceptualized and codified.

This is a study of the nine prose fiction works of Christiane Rochefort written between 1958 and 1988. Despite establishment recognition and a popular mass-market following, Christiane Rochefort has hitherto received little critical attention. Her fiction forms an approachable learning tool for all students of post-war French politics and culture; the bestseller "Les Petits Enfants du Siecle" is a set text in schools and universities in the UK and the USA. This novel of growing up in the working class high-rises of Paris, written in the language of the streets, provides a child-centred view of a youngs girl's social, political and sexual awakening. The study looks at each novel in turn and applies close attention to the narrative sophistication and political subversion of the books. Certain contemporary themes run through her work - the status of children, language as an instrument of oppression and subversion, homosexuality, incest and child abuse. Each chapter of this book provides cultural and socio-political background material.