Tag: New Acquisitions

Percy Cruikshank’s Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war (1870) in context

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French, Historical collections, New Acquisitions, Special collectionsLeave a comment

Two years ago, Cambridge University Library acquired a satirical pocket-size (but 3 meters long, once unfolded) Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war by Percy Cruikshank (1870) (8000.e.354). This work is a good complement to the library’s Collection of 1870-71 Franco-Prussian caricatures from a British perspective. In a talk taking place on Thursday 7 March from 5-6pm in the University Library’s Milstein room, as part of the Cambridge History of Material Texts seminar, we are going to present Cruikshank’s panorama and contextualise this work within the author’s creation of other comic cartoons produced in the concertina format.

Panorama of the Franco Prussian War, painted by PC [Percy Cruikshank], London : F. Platts, 185 Fleet Street EC, & Mann Nephews, 39 Cornhill E.C., [1870-71].
Percy Cruikshank, The Comic History of the Russian War, London : Read & Co., 1856-57.

Continue reading “Percy Cruikshank’s Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war (1870) in context” →

France and the restitution of cultural property 

On By europeancollectionsIn ebooks, French, New Acquisitions, The Department of Collections and Academic LiaisonLeave a comment

The question of restitution of spoliated cultural works currently engages most European countries, especially former colonizing nations. It came into the forelight in France when President Emmanuel Macron advocated for the “return of African heritage” during a visit to Burkina Fasso in 2017. This blog post will look at the headlines of France’s handling of the question of restitution with the details of related books inserted throughout.

Macron commissioned a study by two academics, Bénédicte Savoy (then History professor at the Collège de France in Paris, now at the Technical University of Berlin) and Felwine Sarr (a writer, then Economics professor at Gaston Berger University, Senegal, now in the Romance studies department at Duke University, US). Their report on The Restitution of African cultural heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics was published in 2018: it examined the history and current state of publicly owned French collections of African artworks originating from illicit or disputed acquisitions, as well as claims and recommendations for preparing restitutions. From a wider perspective, they recommended international and inter-African cooperation, improved access to research, archives and documentation (including through digitisations), to fill the gap relating to the preservation, study and wider appreciation of African culture. This would imply training, circulation of temporary exhibitions, as well as educational initiatives to ensure transmission of African cultural heritage.

  • Objets du désir, désir d’objets : Leçon inaugurale prononcée le jeudi 30 mars 2017 / Bénédicte Savoy. Paris : Collège de France, 2017, ebook
  • Restituer le patrimoine africain / Felwine Sarr, Bénédicte Savoy. Paris : Philippe Rey, 2018. C207.d.5916
  • Afrikas Kampf um seine Kunst : Geschichte einer postkolonialen Niederlage / Bénédicte Savoy. München : C.H. Beck, 2021, EBSCO ; Africa’s struggle for its art : history of a postcolonial defeat ; transl. Susanne Meyer-Abich. Princeton University Press, 2022. C218.c.8787 and de Gruyter eBooks; Le long combat de l’Afrique pour son art : histoire d’une défaite post-coloniale. Éditions du Seuil, 2023. C219.c.6031    Continue reading “France and the restitution of cultural property “ →

Living disability, collecting and researching it academically

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, ebooks, English, Faculty Libraries, French, New AcquisitionsLeave a comment

Meggie Boyle is a 3rd year student of French in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Literature and Linguistics. Earlier this year, she got in touch with us at Cambridge University Libraries with book recommendations for her Year Abroad Dissertation project. She suggested titles that we did not have, and we arranged digital alternate formats for books that were only available to buy in print format, via the Cambridge Libraries Accessibility Services. You can read here about her experience of disability which fueled her dissertation project.

“Disability has dominated my life, not only pervading every part of my physical body, but also seeping into the very core of my being, my mind: I see it in everything I do and everywhere I go.

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Three inspirational women for International Women’s Day

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We previously published a blogpost about Cambridge University Library’s French acquisitions in relation to Women’s History Month. For International Women’s Day, we would like to shed light on three inspirational women featured in recent French language publications. Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier was a photographer, a Communist and a resistante. Uyaïnim was a member of the Jivaroan peoples in Peruvian Amazonia who fought for indigenous and women’s rights, and Nina Bouraoui is a Franco-Algerian writer whose works address question of identity and homosexuality.

Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier was a reporter and photographer, a resistant and Communist politician. She came from a liberal bourgeois family, daughter of Lucien Vogel, editor of the magazine Vu, and of Cosette de Brunhoff, sister of the creator of Babar and of the editor of Vogue. A pioneer woman photographer, she travelled to Germany in 1933 and was the first to photograph the camps of Oranienbourg and Dachau. She met a friend of her father, Paul Vaillant-Couturier, editor of communist newspaper L’Humanité, and became his partner, marrying him shortly before his death in 1937. During the war, she contributed to clandestine publications and worked as a messenger for the resistance. She was arrested in 1942 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then Ravensbrück. She returned to France in June 1945, testified at the Nuremberg trials in 1946 and became a Communist member of parliament. She has been the subject of two biographies :

  • Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier : une femme engagée, du PCF au procès de Nuremberg / Dominique Durand, Balland, 2012.
  • On l’appelait Maïco : Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, la révoltée / Yseult Williams, Bernard Grasset, 2021. C206.d.8481

Uyaïnim, or Albertina Nanchijam Tuwits, from the Awajun / Aguaruna people (part of the Jivaroan peoples) in Peruvian Amazonia, became a spokeswoman for indigenous rights and the defense of women. Her memoirs are written through a collaboration with ethnologist Hélène Collongues. They speak of years of pressure put on the land and Amazonian indigenous people by the farmers and colonisers; the suspicion towards and failure of development projects; as well as the discrimination and deculturation faced by native people through educational missions. The narrative also exposes issues within patriarchal indigenous societies, from internal divisions and warfare to exploitation of and violence against women, also highlighting the corruption brought by the introduction of money and greed within these communities.  

  • Uyaïnim, Mémoires d’une femme jivaro / Hélène Collongues, Arles : Actes Sud, 2022, C219.c.2205

Nina Bouraoui was born from an Algerian father and a Breton mother. Her novels deal with questions of memory, identity, homosexuality, and nostalgia for Algeria, where she lived until she was a teenager. She was distinguished as Commandeure de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French ministry of Culture in 2018, and since the 2010s has been the subject of a number of critical studies.

Selected novels:

  • Beaux rivages, JC Lattès, 2016, C204.d.9787
  • Tous les hommes désirent naturellement savoir, JC Lattès, 2018, C206.d.1617 (All men want to know / Nina Bouraoui ; translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins. London : Viking, 2020 & 2021, LSF)
  • Otages, JC Lattès, 2020, C206.d.6938
  • Satisfaction, JC Lattès, 2021, C206.d.7485

Critical studies :

  • Rabiaa Marhouch. Nina Bouraoui : la tentation de l’universel. Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2023, 739:47.c.202.1 
  • Belgacem Belarbi, Nina Bouraoui, une nouvelle sensibilité littéraire, Sarrebruck, Editions Universitaires Européennes, 2022, C219.c.4993
  • Myriam-Naomi Walburg. Zeit der Mehrsprachigkeit : literarische Strukturen des Transtemporalen bei Marica Bodrožić, Nina Bouraoui, Sudabeh Mohafez und Yoko Tawada. Würzburg, Ergon Verlag, 2017, C213.c.7656
  • Rosie MacLachlan. Nina Bouraoui, Autofiction and the search for selfhood, Oxford ; New York, Peter Lang, 2016, 735:44.c.201.92
  • Kirsten Husung. Hybridité et genre : chez Assia Djebar et Nina Bouraoui, L’Harmattan, 2014, C209.c.4543
  • Mokhtar Atallah. Études littéraires algériennes : Albert Camus, Nina Bouraoui, Boualem Sansal, Ahmed Kalouaz, L’Harmattan, 2012, C207.c.1905

Irene Fabry-Tehranchi

French and Francophone literary prizes, 2021-22

On By europeancollectionsIn French, New AcquisitionsLeave a comment

Almost as soon as the European Languages Across Borders blog was created, it started recording prizes for French language books (see French prizewinners for 2013). Before that, French literary prizewinners already featured in the webpages dedicated to Cambridge University Library’s French Collections. Prizes have long been an indicator of literary and cultural trends, reflecting the reception of contemporary writing, and contributing to its promotion and diffusion, on a national and international level. 2022 can be remembered as the year when Annie Ernaux became Literature Nobel Prize laureate. Prizes are also a useful tool in collection development. Here is a list of French and Francophone prizewinners for 2021-22. Among Francophone prizes, the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde still has to be awarded.

Comar d’Or: En pays assoiffé / Emna Belhaj Yahia, Des Femmes Editions, 2021, C206.d.6950

Continue reading “French and Francophone literary prizes, 2021-22” →

Current Francophone Haitian literature

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Colonised by the Spanish and then the French until its successful revolution and independence in 1804, Haiti plays an important role within Francophone literature. However, it still bears the traces of the catastrophic 2010 earthquake (which claimed between 100,000 and 300,000 lives), followed by an extended period of political uncertainty and upheaval. This was further aggravated by the 2016 Hurricane Matthew (which, though less lethal, left 175,000 people homeless). This series of disasters has meant that at Cambridge University Library, sourcing books published in Haiti has been challenging. Over several years, our regional supplier Libros Latinos was not able to travel to the country. However, as is often the case for Francophone literature, many Haitian authors are also published in Canada and France, whether they are still residing in Haiti or have emigrated.

One example is the writer and publisher Rodney Saint-Éloi, born in Haiti, who founded the publishing house Mémoire, as well as the magazine Cultura and the journal Boutures. He moved to Québec in 2001, is a member of the Académie des Lettres du Québec, and in 2003 created the publishing house Mémoire d’encrier, based on the principle of cultural diversity:

Mémoire d’encrier publie des auteur.e.s québécois.e.s, autochtones, antillais.e.s, arabes, africain.e.s… représentant ainsi une large plate-forme où se confrontent les imaginaires dans l’apprentissage et le respect de la différence et de la diversité culturelle. Continue reading “Current Francophone Haitian literature” →

A new acquisition: the Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war by Percy Cruikshank (1870)

On By europeancollectionsIn English, French, German, New Acquisitions, Special collectionsLeave a comment

We are delighted to be able to shed light on the recent purchase by Cambridge University Library Special Collections of a satirical Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war. Illustrated by Percy Cruikshank, it probably dates from the end of 1870. It relates to both the exhibition of the Cambridge collection of 1870-71 caricatures held at the University Library this spring, and the academic conference on the Memory of 1870-71 held at Wolfson College by Marion Glaumaud-Carbonnier and Nick White last month.

Unfolded panorama in the Rare books reading roomThe Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war, published in London by F. Platts & Mann Nephews, was “painted by PC from the sketches of Messrs. Smith, Brown, Jones & Robinson”. The full signature of Percy Cruikshank (1817-1880) appears repeatedly within the images themselves. Percy came from an illustrious family of caricaturists: he was the son of Isaac Robert Cruikshank (1789-1856), the nephew of George Cruikshank (1792-1878), and the grandson of Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811). He contributed caricatures of the Franco-Prussian war to the British satirical humour magazine Judy or the London Serio-Comic Journal (named after Punch and Judy). The highly collaborative nature of the panorama is interesting given the reference to no less than four sketchers. Continue reading “A new acquisition: the Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war by Percy Cruikshank (1870)” →

Book publications on French politics and political figures, ahead of the 2022 parliamentary elections 

On By europeancollectionsIn ebooks, French1 Comment

On the 12th and 19th of June 2022, French citizens are electing their 577 Members of Parliament, shortly after the re-election of President Emmanuel Macron (see previous blogpost). If a candidate obtains more than 50% of the votes with a participation of at least 25%, he can be elected as MP in the first round. Otherwise, the second round includes the two candidates who obtained the most votes in the first round, and possibly others who have received more than 12.5 % of the votes of registered electors. This system, which relies on majority rather than proportionality, favours the candidates of the leading political parties, but can also lead to strategic alliances. Continue reading “Book publications on French politics and political figures, ahead of the 2022 parliamentary elections “ →

Publications on Emmanuel Macron, the newly re-elected French president

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The French collections at Cambridge University Library include a wide range of works on French contemporary society and politics, aiming to reflect the whole political spectrum. Here, we will shed light on publications relating to Emmanuel Macron who last Sunday was re-elected for a second five-year mandate as president of the French Republic, with 58,5 % of the votes against 41,5 % for Marine Le Pen. In the first round of the elections Macron had received 27.8% of the votes, against 23.1% for Le Pen and 21.9% for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the left-wing, “eco-socialist” party La France Insoumise. Macron received the votes of many citizens who had voted for other candidates in the first round of the elections and did not want Marine Le Pen to be elected. However, it was also the first time the extreme right Front National received such a share of the national vote. Five years ago, in 2017, Macron, who at 39 was the youngest elected French president, since the creation of the office in 1848, had fared better, receiving 66 % of the votes, against only 33.9 % for Marine Le Pen.

Back in 2015, a book by Marc Endeweld (L’ambigu monsieur Macron, Flammarion) C211.c.2573, highlighted the paradoxical choice by the then socialist president François Hollande, of Emmanuel Macron, a liberal-leaning former investment banker at Rothschild & Co., as Economics minister.

The graphic work Faire la loi / scénario, Hélène Bekmezian, Patrick Roger et Aurel (Grenoble : Glénat, 2017) C202.b.1090, which starts with a visual depiction of Emmanuel Macron’s career, explores the administrative and legislative twists and turns which led to the adoption of the 2015 “loi Macron”, a law adopted under article 49.3, i.e. forced through by the government without a vote in the Assemblée Nationale. This “law for growth, activity and equal economic opportunities” facilitated night work and work on Sundays, opened up for competition the coach transport sector, introduced change within regulated professions, etc. It was ideologically mixed, introducing deregulation but also including some aspects of social and state protection, which maybe indicated the direction of Macron’s later presidency.

In the wake of the 2022 presidential elections, the French political landscape still reflects the political earthquake led by Emmanuel Macron, initially a financier and a technocrat, rather than a grassroots politician, who started as a member of the socialist party, but then claimed to be beyond the left / right political divide. His rise to power, shortly after the creation of the En Marche political party (bearing his initials), coincided with a crisis of the traditional right-wing Republicans and left-wing Socialists, and was accompanied by a strengthening and normalisation of the extreme right led by Marine Le Pen. This social and political context is reflected in several publications, starting with Macron’s own political essay, published during the 2017 presidential campaign.

  • Révolution / Emmanuel Macron (XO éditions, 2016) (C213.c.1957) ; translation by Jonathan Goldberg and Juliette Scott (London : Scribe, 2017) (C213.c.4245)
  • Revolution française : Emmanuel Macron and the Quest to Reinvent a Nation / Sophie Pedder  (London : Bloomsbury Continuum, 2018 (Electronic Legal Deposit and Seeley Historical Library DC430 .P43 2018)
  • Macron par Touraine / Alain Touraine ; dialogue avec Denis Lafay (La Tour-d’Aigues : Éditions de l’Aube, 2018) (C214.c.9922)
  • Être postmoderne / Michel Maffesoli ; postface de Hélène Strohl : Emmanuel Macron, icône ou fake de la postmodernité? (Les Éditions du Cerf, 2018) (C214.c.9225)
  • The French exception : Emmanuel Macron : the extraordinary rise and risk / Adam Plowright (London : Icon, 2018) (2018.8.1933)
  • L’événement Macron : un abécédaire historique / Jean-Pierre Rioux (Odile Jacob, 2017) (C205.d.7967)

Some publications, academic or polemical, specifically reflect on the significance of the 2017 presidential elections, marker of disruption in the French political landscape, and on the evolution of the relationship between (election) politics and the media.

  • Le débat Le Pen-Macron du 3 mai 2017 : un débat “disruptif”? / Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni ; avec la collaboration de Domitille Caillat et Hugues Constantin de Chanay (L’Harmattan, 2019) (C216.c.298)
  • Le vote disruptif : les élections présidentielle et législatives de 2017 / sous la direction de Pascal Perrineau (SciencesPo, les presses, 2017), (C205.d.7145)
  • Le moment Macron : un président et l’Histoire / Jean-Noël Jeanneney (Éditions du Seuil, 2017) (C205.d.5188)
  • Macron : miracle ou mirage? / Pierre-André Taguieff (Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2017) (C214.c.1584)
  • The French exception : Emmanuel Macron – the extraordinary rise and risk / Adam Plowright (London : Icon Books, 2017) (2017.8.5269)
  • Zéro de conduite : carnets d’après-campagne / Michel Onfray (Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2018) (C205.d.9945)
  • Histoire d’une révolution électorale (2015-2018) / sous la direction de Bruno Cautrès et Anne Muxel (Classiques Garnier, 2019) (C215.c.2576)
  • Jupiter et Mercure : le pouvoir présidentiel face à la presse / Alexis Lévrier (Les Petits Matins, 2021) (C206.d.7705)

In the context of the important powers given to French presidents under the Constitution of the Vth Republic, during his first mandate, Emmanuel Macron, who has been particularly active in international and European politics, has been criticised for an authoritarian practice of government, especially in the context of the Gilet jaunes socio-political protest movement. Although he came from a left / centrist political background, he has also been perceived as part of a disconnected, haughty (urban, educated, liberal) elite showing little understanding of the everyday struggles of some French people.

  • Les politiques sociales sous Macron / Mehdi Arrignon (Grenoble : PUG, 2022) (C207.d.74)
  • Macron, les leçons d’un échec / Marcel Gauchet (Stock, 2021) (C217.c.9736)
  • Macrons neues Frankreich / La nouvelle France de Macron : Hintergründe, Reformansätze und deutsch-französische Perspektiven / Contextes, ébauches de réforme et perspectives franco-allemandes / Dietmar Hüser, Hans-Christian Herrmann. Adolf, Kimmel, (Bielefeld : transcript-Verlag, 2021), de Gruyter eBooks Complete  (Online Access)
  • L’entreprise Macron / Bernard Dolez, Julien Fretel, Rémi Lefebvre (dir.) (Fontaine : PUG, 2019) EBSCOhost Ebook Academic Collection (Online Access)
  • Le président sur la corde raide : les enjeux du macronisme / Roland Cayrol (Calmann Lévy, 2019) (C215.c.9245)
  • Crépuscule / Juan Branco. (Vauvert : Au diable Vauvert, 2019) (C206.d.2234)
  • Emmanuel le magnifique : chronique d’un règne / Patrick Rambaud (Bernard Grasset, 2019) (C206.d.1529)
  • La politique est un métier / Michaël Darmon (Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2019) (C215.c.5947)
  • Dieu, la République et Macron : cuisine et confessions / Salomon Malka (Les Éditions du Cerf, 2019) (C206.d.1597) 
  • Macron, ou, La démocratie de fer / Michaël Darmon (L’Archipel, 2018) (C215.c.1889)

Several publications take a historical perspective, comparing his type of (personal, absolutist, self-proclaimed ‘Jupiterian’) government with that of earlier presidents, and placing it in the perspective of wider social and cultural developments within contemporary French society. For Jean Viard, the bigger picture of Macron’s ascent to power is that while French society became less industrial, more digital and collaborative, and with the growth of a global ecological thinking, the old idea of a class struggle has been superseded by the development of groups promoting community, regional and religious interests…

  • La République incarnée : de Léon Gambetta à Emmanuel Macron / Jean Garrigues (Perrin, 2019) (C214.c.8966) 
  • Chronique française : de Mitterrand à Macron / Jean Viard (La Tour d’Aigues : Éditions de l’Aube, 2018) (C214.c.4913)

Some essays look into how Emmanuel Macron’s relation with the philosopher Paul Ricoeur whom he assisted in editing La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (Seuil, 2000, 180:2.c.200.165). In contrast with previous president’s Nicolas Sarkozy strong anti-intellectualist stance, Macron’s own political engagement may have been encouraged by his mentor. The influence of Ricoeur might appear in Macron’s understanding of the importance (and disillusion with the outcomes) of dialectics, translated into public and societal debate; in his search for a pragmatic politics beyond traditional left and right divisions; in the idea of a permanently changing and evolving national identity; in the promotion of man’s will and “capability”; or in the “neo-protestant” promotion of transparency… However, some argue that practical politics can only betray the nuance and complexity of a philosophers’ thoughts.

  • Le philosophe et le Président : Ricoeur & Macron / François Dosse (Stock, 2017) (C214.c.3915)
  • Macron, ou, Les illusions perdues : les larmes de Paul Ricoeur / François Dosse (Le Passeur éditeur, 2022) (C207.d.547)
  • Macron par Ricœur : le politique et le philosophe / Pierre-Olivier Monteil (Lemieux éditeur, 2017) (C205.d.7062) 
  • Macron, un président philosophe / Brice Couturier (Les Éditions de l’Observatoire, 2017) (C214.c.3808)
  • Le nouveau pouvoir / Régis Debray (Les éditions du Cerf, 2017) (2018.7.361) 

In a follow up blogpost, and in the light of the forthcoming French parliamentary elections, we will have a look at publications relating to other politicians involved in the presidential elections.

Irene Fabry-Tehranchi

Bon voyage! New French-language travel history books in the University Library

On By europeancollectionsIn French, New AcquisitionsLeave a comment

As many of us resign ourselves to a 2021 ‘staycation’, how about taking the opportunity to travel through the UL’s French-language collections instead? A number of recent acquisitions conveniently explore travel history and narratives!

Continue reading “Bon voyage! New French-language travel history books in the University Library” →