{"product_id":"figurations-of-france-marcus-keller-9781644531365","title":"Figurations of France: Literary Nation-Building in Times of Crisis (1550-1650)","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eFigurations of France: Literary Nation-Building in Times of Crisis (1550-1650)\u003c\/i\u003e, Marcus Keller explores the often indirect and subtle ways in which key texts of early modern French literature, from Joachim Du Bellay's \u003ci\u003eDéfense et illustration de la langue française\u003c\/i\u003e to Corneille's \u003ci\u003eLe Cid\u003c\/i\u003e, contribute to the fiction of France as a nation. Through his fresh take on these and other classics, he shows that they not only create the French as an imaginary community but also provide venues for an incisive critique of the political and cultural construct that underpins the modern nation-state.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCurrent theories of nationhood, in particular the concepts of the nation form and fictive ethnicity (Étienne Balibar), inform the close readings of Du Bellay's \u003ci\u003eDéfense\u003c\/i\u003e, Ronsard's \u003ci\u003eDiscours\u003c\/i\u003e, d'Aubigné's \u003ci\u003eTragiques\u003c\/i\u003e, Montaigne's \u003ci\u003eEssays\u003c\/i\u003e, Malherbe's odes, and Corneille's \u003ci\u003eLe Cid\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHorace\u003c\/i\u003e. They reveal the imaginary power and unifying force of early modern figurations of France that come to bear in this heteregoneous corpus of French literature, with texts ranging from manifesto and epic poem to essay and tragedy. Situating each author and text in their particular historical context, the study suggests that the literary invention of France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is as abundant as it is conceptually innovative: Du Bellay, for example, develops an idea of France by portraying the French language as a pruned and grafted tree while d'Aubigné proposes to think of the French as a nuclear but fatherless family. Blood functions as a highly charged metaphor of nationhood in all texts.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOpening up new perspectives on these canonical works, the focus on literary nation-building also puts them into unexpected and thought-provoking relationships to each other. \u003ci\u003eFigurations of France\u003c\/i\u003e deliberately crosses the fictive boundary between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries and argues that, in terms of imaginary nation-building, the contours that delineate the early modern period and separate it from what we call the modern era quickly begin to dissolve. Ultimately, the book makes the case for early modern literature as a creative and critical discourse, able to nourish and nuance our thinking about the nation as the postmodern nation-state is increasingly called into question by the economical, political, and cultural effects of globalization.\u003c\/p\u003e Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Marcus Keller\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1644531364\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781644531365\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Delaware Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/22\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.74lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.51d","brand":"Marcus Keller","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44567224615167,"sku":"9781644531365","price":53.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_db0238fa-7eb8-45f2-843c-a849ff906934.jpg?v=1701376629","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/figurations-of-france-marcus-keller-9781644531365","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}