L' Intime Èpistolaire (1850-1900)

"L'Intime èpistolaire (1850-1900): genre et pratique culturelle is a valuable investigation of the construction of intimacy as modelled through the epistolary form in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Situating her work within the current theoretical corpus on intimacy, on epistolarity, and on the public/private structuring of the social-from Habermas's theorizing of the public sphere through to Foucault's concept of a 'technology of the self'-Jovicic analyzes how the letter...
More Description

"L'Intime èpistolaire (1850-1900): genre et pratique culturelle is a valuable investigation of the construction of intimacy as modelled through the epistolary form in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Situating her work within the current theoretical corpus on intimacy, on epistolarity, and on the public/private structuring of the social-from Habermas's theorizing of the public sphere through to Foucault's concept of a 'technology of the self'-Jovicic analyzes how the letter form is produced in the intersection between 'private' subjectivity and cultural practice. . . In its combining of precise archival research with theoretical insight, L'Intime èpistolaire offers the best kind of grounded and original scholarship." - Chris Roulston, French Studies and Women's Studies and Feminist Research, University of Western Ontario "In addressing the subject of the late-19th century epistolary form, Jelena Jovicic has set herself a redoubtable and many-faceted task. Her dense and sophisticated (yet extremely readable) book nevertheless achieves its many goals, sweeping away any lingering perception of writers' correspondence either as a kind of "slipper-wearing" (semi-)literary form or as a simple repository of documentary information, and demonstrating most convincingly that the modern researcher (be s/he literary critic, social theorist or cultural historian) should examine the letter, in all its cultural and poetic presence, as a genre unto itself: a vital and, in the case of the latter half of the 19th century, curiously undervalued form of literary self-representation which must take its place alongside the genres of autobiography and diary." - Jeremy Worth, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Windsor «Prenant pour objets d'ètude les correspondances de Sand, Flaubert, Hugo, Baudelaire, Eberhardt, Daudet, Goncourt et Zola, cet ouvrage fait revivre les dessous du monde littèraire du XIXe siécle, tout en les analysant avec beaucoup de finesse. S'appuyant sur une solide bibliographie, il s'avére porteur d'une grande richesse thèorique, mêlant (et parfois conciliant) savamment les approches, comme la pragmatique, la sèmiotique, l'histoire ou la philosophie, et les courants de pensèes de Darwin á Cixous. Avec son approche pluridisciplinaire, il apportera une trés belle contribution aux ètudes de l'èpistolaire et du XIXe siécle, et saura captiver un public averti.» - Roxane Petit-Rasselle, Department of French, Franklin & Marshall College «Aborder l'intime èpistolaire tel qu'inscrit dans les correspondances de la deuxiéme moitiè du XIXe siécle, c'est faire la lumiére sur plusieurs sujets á la fois car, au-delá du projet au dèpart individuel et intime de l'ècriture èpistolaire, ce sont une èpoque et une sociètè qui sont mises á l'ètude.» - Philippe Basabose, Department of French and Spanish, Memorial University