Annie Ernaux, 1989: diaries, photographic writing and self-vivisection

A broad and inclusive account of the multiple manifestations of photography in contemporary French and francophone societies and cultures As part of the recent turn towards visual culture in French studies, photography has begun to receive increased attention from scholars in the field. This volume of eight orignial essays and an interview with the Director of one of France's leading photographic institutions (the Maison européenne de la photographie). Key Features A wide-ranging treatment of the multi-faceted reality of photography in French and francophone contexts Addresses individual photographers and writers (including Bruno Boudjelal, Stéphane Couturier, Raymond Depardon, Valerie Jouve and Roland Barthes, Sophie Calle, J.M.G. Le Clézio, Annie Ernaux, Hervé Guibert, Denis Roche) Includes an original interview with Jean-Luc Monterosso, Director of the Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris Includes 15 colour and black/white illustration

Scatter and resist: Ferrier writing Fukushima

This article explores the many ways in which Michaël Ferrier, novelist, academic, and essayist, writes about the triple disaster, known in the west as ‘Fukushima’, that struck Japan on 11 March 2011. He travelled up to the stricken area from Tokyo and wrote a witness account of his experiences, Fukushima: récit d’un désastre [‘Fukushima, Account of a Disaster’] (2012). During the ten years since Ferrier has continued to write prolifically about the disaster and its aftermath. This article discusses the hybrid genres used in Fukushima: récit d’un désastre to capture the appalling realities Ferrier witnessed and analyses how the generic hybridity arises from what I call an aesthetics of scatteredness, a model that also accurately describes the ensemble of his writings on Fukushima. It will also show how Ferrier’s generic choices indicate his ecological awareness and his desire to decentre the human in thecontext of disaster writing

Walking underground: two francophone flaneurs in 21st-century Tokyo

This article explores ‘Tokyo underground’ as described by Régine Robin and Michaël Ferrier. In the strange spaces beneath the surface of the city, these writer-flâneurs discover forms of universality which they identify as Tokyo’s ‘syntax’; specific configurations of the common language spoken in and by metropolises all over the world

Time travelling in Ernaux's Memoire de Fille

This article is a close reading of Ernaux’s latest book, Mémoire de fille (2016). Following Les Années (2008), generally perceived to be her masterpiece although atypical of her work because it is written in the third person, Mémoire de fille seems at first sight to be a return to the first-person voice as well as to a narrower and more personal focus. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear – as I show in the article – that in her latest work Ernaux goes further than ever before in her attempts to travel back through time into her past selves, including one almost physical ‘return’ to the past through photography which rivals Proust’s experiments with his madeleine. The article shows how this work contains some of Ernaux’s most self-reflexive and theorized ideas about time – lived, imaginary, reading and writing time – although these are always offered in the context of her autobiographical project. I also show how, again like Proust, Ernaux’s experiments with time in Mémoire de fille are crucial to her formation as a writer, as a writing self

Isolation of an X-factor-dependent but porphyrin-positive Escherichia coli from urine of a patient with hemorrhagic cystitis

An Escherichia coli isolate was recovered from a 92-year-old female patient with urinary tract infection. Gram-stained preparation of the urine sediment manifested some gram-negative rod-shaped cells, and the urine specimen culture yielded nonhemolytic colonies on sheep blood agar plate. However, no visible colonies appeared on modified Drigalski agar plate. The isolate was finally identified as an X-factor-dependent E. coli. The interesting finding was that the isolate revealed a positive reaction for porphyrin test despite the requirement of hemin. This finding suggested that some pyrrol-ring-containing porphyrin compounds or fluorescent porphyrins had been produced as chemical intermediates in the synthetic pathway from delta-amino-levulinic acid (ALA), although the isolate should be devoid of synthesizing hems from ALA. This was the first clinical isolation of such a strain, indicating that the E. coli isolate should possess incomplete synthetic pathways of hems from ALA.ArticleJOURNAL OF INFECTION AND CHEMOTHERAPY. 19(4):764-766 (2013)journal articl

When the unfamiliar becomes familiar...? Proust, planes and modernity

Book synopsis: This volume commemorates the work of Malcolm Bowie, who died in 2007. It includes selected papers drawn from the conference held in his memory at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London, in May 2008, inspired by his work in nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature. Malcolm Bowie was instrumental in shaping French studies in the United Kingdom into the interdisciplinary field it now is. The contributions to this collection are grouped around Bowie's principal interests and specialisms: poetry, Proust, theory, visual art and music. The book is, however, more than a memorial to Malcolm Bowie's work and legacy. In its inclusion of work by established and eminent members of the academic profession as well as new and emerging scholars, it is also a showcase for cutting-edge work in French studies in the United Kingdom and beyond

Stereotype formation and sleeping women: the misreading of Madame Chrysanthème

This article attempts to show that Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysanthème is a highly complex text, conscious of its own fin-de siècle context. His texts work both with and against the discourse of japonisme, the language of stereotype formation. The hero's ambivalent attitude towards the sleeping Chrysanthème embodies Loti's attitude towards Japan, with its conflicting desires and obligations. Such a novel was fated to be misread, but the article concludes that this, paradoxically, was the author's aim