Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature

Paul Gifford is Buchanan Professor of French and Director of the Institute of European Cultural Identity Studies at the University of St Andrews, UK. He has taught in France and Canada, as well as in Scotland and Ireland and is a member of the Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes (ITEM) of the Centre national de la rescherche scientifique, (Paris).

Contents: Author's note on translation of quoted material; Introduction. First Series: Origins, Recognitions: Plato's Symposium: the transcending enigma of Eros; Nuptial splendour: the song of songs; Shadow upon splendour: Genesis, transgression and the West. Second Series: Love as Cultural Construct: Mappings: Eros and Agape; Love in French literary tradition: the Troubadours to Rousseau; The crisis of Eros and the 'death of God'. Third Series: Deconstructing Romantic Transcendence: Mappings: Eros under suspicion; Marcel Proust: the idolatries of Eros; Paul Valéry: Eros unveiled and the re-imagining of love; Paul Claudel: transgression and promise. Fourth Series: The Immanent Beyond: Mappings: libido liberated and love sublime; André Breton's starry castle; Georges Bataille: the erotic abyss; Marguerite Duras: the haunting. Fifth Series: The Postmodern Symposium: Mappings: Eros 'post-everything'; Roland Barthes: amorous discourse and its subject; Luce Irigaray: lifting the curse of Genesis. Sixth Series: Agape Remembered?: Mappings: 'post-Christian' memory of Agape; Pierre Emmanuel: 'car enfin je vous aime!'; Julia Kristeva: re-telling the love story. Conclusion: remembering the past, negotiating the future; Select bibliography; Index.