France and Indochina: Cultural Representations

by Kathryn Robson (Editor), Jennifer Yee (Editor), Lily Chiu (Contribution by), Nicola Cooper (Contribution by), David Del Testa (Contribution by)

Overview

At the intersection of literary, cultural, and postcolonial studies, this volume looks at French perceptions of 'Indochina' as they are conveyed through a variety of media including cinema, literature, art, and historical or anthropological writings. The volume is long awaited, as France's memory of 'Indochina' is understudied compared to its relationship with its former colonies in West and North Africa. The book has contemporary urgency as the makeup of France's immigrant population changes and grows to include Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotioan populations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739108390
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/28/2005
Series:	After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Kathryn Robson is lecturer in the School of Modern Languages, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom. Jennifer Yee is lecturer at the University of Oxford (Christ Church).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 Monuments and Memory
Chapter 3 Taj Angkor: Enshrining l'Inde in le Cambodge
Chapter 4 Representing Indochinese Sacrifice: The Temple du Souvenir Indochinois of Nogent-sur-Marne
Part 5 Transport Networks
Chapter 6 Lines of Communication in: The Thematics of Direction and Strategies of Narration in Colonial Indochina
Chapter 7 Automobiles and Anomie in French Colonial Indochina
Part 8 Tropical Angst?
Chapter 9 Disturbing the Colonial Order: Dystopia and Disillusionment in Indochina
Chapter 10 Of le Cafard and Other Tropical Threats: Disease and White Colonial Culture in Indochina
Part 11 Women in and against Empire
Chapter 12 French Women and the Empire
Chapter 13 Vietnamese New Women and the Fashioning of Modernity
Part 14 Screening Indochina
Chapter 15 Camille's Breasts: The Evolution of the Fantasy Native in Régis Wargnier's Indochine
Chapter 16 Tranh Anh Hung as Diasporic Filmaker
Part 17 Writing Indochina
Chapter 18 From Incest to Exile: Linda Lê and the Incestuous Vietnamese Immigrants
Chapter 19 "Cholen, la capitale chinoise de l'Indochine française": Rereading Marguerite Duras's (Indo)Chinese Space
Chapter 20 Playing Hardball: Linda Lê's Les Trois Parques
Chapter 21 Jean Hougron's Indochina: Fantasy and Disillusionment

Editorial Reviews

This collection is a valuable contribution to studies of the French colonial encounter with Indochina, of cultural representations and, more widely, of colonial discourse.

International Journal Of Francophone Studies

France and "Indochina" is a richly suggestive exploration of the cultural dynamics of an unduly neglected part of France's former colonial empire. Its interdisciplinary optic opens up many new perspectives on French Indochina and its postcolonial aftermath, throwing valuable light on a wide range of cultural forms, including architecture, literature and film.

Alec Hargreaves

This outstanding collection combines contributions from established scholars of Francophone South-East Asia with the work of some of the most talented and original new researchers in the field. The volume explores the representation and reality of colonial Indochina and also offers an introduction to some of the most innovative Francophone writers and filmmakers of the contemporary Indochinese diaspora. By pairing rigorous historical inquiry with original cultural, literary and theoretical analyses, the essays collected here reveal the complex, ambivalent connections linking France and Indochina, as well as the postcolonial legacies of the contacts and conflicts on which these connections depend.

Charles Forsdick