The Backward Look
Memory and the Writing Self in France 1580-1920

Angelica Goodden

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Legenda (General Series)

Legenda

1 July 2000  •  206pp

ISBN: 1-900755-31-9 (paperback)  •  RRP £75, $99, €85

FrenchPhilosophy

Theories of memory and fictional recreations of the remembering mind have occupied a central place in French literature since Montaigne. Goodden investigates the shifting relation between cognitive or 'scientific' memory and emotional or spiritual recollection in a series of major writers from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Her study focuses on the eighteenth century, where the interplay between memory and imagination and the link between self-knowledge and self-presentation are shown to be exceptionally fertile. The philosophical, scientific and fictional writings of Diderot and the novels and autobiographical works of Rousseau are central to this ground-breaking work, which will be of interest to all readers concerned with the specificity of the French literary tradition.

Angelica Goodden is Fellow and Tutor in French at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Her previous books include Actio and Persuasion: Dramatic Performance in Eighteenth-Century France (1986), The Complete Lover: Eros, Nature and Artifice in the Eighteenth-Century French Novel (1989) and The Sweetness of Life: A Biography of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1997).

Reviews:

  • ‘Reads like an essay by Montaigne... an ambitious and thought-provoking study.’ — Michéle Bissiére, French Review 76.3, 2003, 592-3
  • ‘It is salutary to read a thoughtful, level-headed and well-informed account of the representation of the self in French writing... there is no doubting the depth, range and persuasiveness of the thesis advanced.’ — Anthony Strugnell, French Studies LVII.3, 2003, 428-30

Bibliography entry:

Goodden, Angelica, The Backward Look: Memory and the Writing Self in France 1580-1920 (Legenda, 2000)

First footnote reference: 35 Angelica Goodden, The Backward Look: Memory and the Writing Self in France 1580-1920 (Legenda, 2000), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Goodden, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Goodden, Angelica. 2000. The Backward Look: Memory and the Writing Self in France 1580-1920 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Goodden 2000: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Goodden 2000: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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