Regarding Manneken Pis
Culture, Celebration and Conflict in Brussels

Catherine Emerson

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Research Monographs in French Studies 42

Legenda

16 March 2015  •  154pp

ISBN: 978-1-909662-30-8 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

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Manneken Pis, a fountain featuring a bronze child urinating, has stood on the same Brussels street corner since at least the mid-fifteenth century. Since there is no consensus on its meaning, it has been used to express many different readings of social relations in a complex city and nation state. It has formed part of the festival culture of the city — from royal entries to gay pride — but has also been exploited in conflicts arising out of war and occupation, and the tensions inherent in modern Belgium. Drawing on archives, histories, police reports, devotional literature, ephemera and a wealth of other sources, Catherine Emerson examines how one smaller-than-lifesized water source has come to embody a certain sort of Brussels identity.

Catherine Emerson is Lecturer in French at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Regarding Manneken Pis was short-listed for the Gapper Prize 2016, awarded by the Society for French Studies to the best monograph of its year in the field of French studies by a scholar in the UK or Ireland.

Reviews:

  • ‘In this detailed and investigative study, the multiplicity of interpretations to which the statue has been subjected comes to the fore... The iconic Manneken Pis straddles French-speaking and Flemish-speaking communities and cultures, and Emerson teases out these narratives and their ramifications.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.2, 2016, 235
  • ‘To arrive at the heart of understanding how this two-foot statue has come to mean so much to the people of Brussels and to express the wide variety of social relations and tensions of a complex city and a modern nation as a whole, Regarding Manneken Pis is an ideal resource.’ — Eileen M. Angelini, French Review 89.3, 2016, 60

Bibliography entry:

Emerson, Catherine, Regarding Manneken Pis: Culture, Celebration and Conflict in Brussels, Research Monographs in French Studies, 42 (Legenda, 2015)

First footnote reference: 35 Catherine Emerson, Regarding Manneken Pis: Culture, Celebration and Conflict in Brussels, Research Monographs in French Studies, 42 (Legenda, 2015), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Emerson, p. 47.

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

Bibliography entry:

Emerson, Catherine. 2015. Regarding Manneken Pis: Culture, Celebration and Conflict in Brussels, Research Monographs in French Studies, 42 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Emerson 2015: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Emerson 2015: 21.

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

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