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Beyond the Happy Ending: Imagining Happiness in Contemporary French Women's Writing and Film

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kathryn Robson

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Abstract

Happiness (and the question of how to define, measure and facilitate it) has become a key theme in political, economic and social discourses in recent decades in France and elsewhere, yet research on happiness in French culture and film has been limited. Given that happiness is clearly gendered, this book looks critically at the ways in which contemporary French women’s writing and film give voice to and critique conceptions of happiness. Analysing French and francophone women’s writing (film (including Nina Bouraoui, Hélène Cixous, Annie Ernaux Camille Laurens, Leïla Slimani, Delphine de Vigan) and film (including Claire Denis, Céline Sciamma and Agnès Varda), I focus on five main areas: images of happiness in consumer and Internet culture; happiness and intimacy in the family and the home; queering happiness; migrated happiness and happiness and ageing. Whilst the ‘happiness turn’ is problematic, the desire for happiness, however fraught, matters and I show how representations of happiness in contemporary French women’s writing and film offer alternative conceptions of happiness that enable us to rethink happiness in more critical, diverse and inclusive terms.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Robson KA

Publication type: Authored Book

Publication status: In Press

Series Title: Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures

Year: 2025

Acceptance date: 01/04/2024

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Place Published: Liverpool

Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item

ISBN: 9781836243328


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