Stranger in Paris

The dialogue between form and message is intrinsic to the novel as genre. Yet the strength of that discourse has been shaken in the twentieth century by an increasing doubt about affirmations of any kind and a growing awareness of the relativity of knowledge and perception. The novel reflects this intellectual current by turning its glance inward to mediate on the creative act as a form of self-contained assertion of its own particular significance. The three writers on whom this study focuses, all major twentieth century authors, were chosen because they can be considered as important representatives of this novelistic self-consciousness. Building on André Malraux's vision of the colloquium as an open-ended verbal interchange, this study calls upon the voices of Anne Hérbert and Patrick Modiano to enter into a dialogue on novelistic form.

In this compact and tightly argued essay, the author maintains that the French Third Republic—and European history during this period in general—can only be understood if particular attention is paid to the special relationship that existed between France and Germany. The experience of the French people was so intimately related to that of its closest neighbor that a bilateral perspective becomes unavoidable. Without the unifying theme of Germany&rsquos crucial role in acting upon and within the French Republic, this story would become a much more random tale of events. After 1870, an autonomous national history of France is no longer possible. Allan Mitchell received his Ph. D. at Harvard in 1961, then taught at Smith College (1961-1972) and the University of California, San Diego (1972-1998). His first book was Revolution in Bavaria (Princeton, 1965). That was followed by a trilogy published by the University of North Carolina Press: The German Influence in France after 1870: The Formation of the French Republic (Chapel Hill, 1979); Victors and Vanquished: The German Influence on Army and Church in France after 1870 (Chapel Hill and London, 1984); and The Divided Path: The German Influence on Social Reform in France after 1870 (Chapel Hill and London, 1991). His latest volume was published by Berghahn Books: The Great Train Race: Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry, 1815-1914 (New York and Oxford, 2000). Currently he is preparing a study of the German occupation of Paris, 1940-1944.

Constantina Thalia Mitchell is Professor of French at Gallauder University (Washington D.C.). She holds a Ph.D. in French literature from McGill University and a licence ès lettres from the Sorbonne. Her publications include works on Paul Verlaine, Anne Hérbert, Yves Beauchemin, and nineteenth- and twentieth century deaf history of Québec. She has served on the executive and editiorial boards of the American Council for Québec Studies, as well as the Galluader University Press editorial board.

Paul Raymond Côté is Associate Professor of French at The American University (Washington D.C.) and received his Ph.D. in French literature from McGill University. The author of Les Techniques picturales chez les romains de Malraux: interrogation et métamorphose (1984), he has also written on other contemporary French authors and has published a number of articles dealing with the literature of Québec. He has served as managing editor of The André Malraux Review and as as member of the Québec Studies editorial board.