French "low" culture
low culture - French culture - France - culture
People: José Bénazéraf - Jean Bruce - Max Pécas - Jean Rollin
French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction (2000) - Jean-Marc Lofficier, Randy Lofficier
French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction (2000) - Jean-Marc Lofficier, Randy Lofficier [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
Connoisseurs of fantasy, science fiction, and horror have long recognized the important contributions of thousands of French authors, filmmakers, and artists.
The volume is divided into two parts. Part I gives historical overviews, complete lists, descriptions, and summaries for works in film, television, radio, animation, comic books, and graphic novels. This section also includes interviews with animation director Ren Laloux and comic book artist Moebius, as well as comments from filmmaker Luc Besson. Biographies are provided for over 200 important contributors to television and graphic arts. Part II covers the major authors and literary trends of French science fiction, fantasy, and horror from the Middle Ages to the present day. (French-Canadians and Belgians are also examined.) There is a biographical dictionary of over 3,000 authors, a section on major French awards, and a complete bibliography. Over 1,000 illustrations (!) illuminate this thorough presentation.
About the Author
Professional writers Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier received the INKPOT AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMIC ARTS. The live in Reseda, California.
Jean-Marc Lofficier is a writer of books and comic books about science fiction and fantasy.
With his wife, Randy, Jean-Marc has co-authored half a dozen books about movies and television, as well as numerous comics and translations, including the Moebius graphic novels. In 1990, in recognition of their distinguished career as comic book writers, translators and editors, Randy and Jean-Marc were presented with the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts.
Jean-Marc has also collaborated with Randy on a number of animation and live-action feature scripts and teleplays -- all covered under Randy's Professional Site.
Jean-Marc is also a founding member of HOLLYWOOD COMICS, a company founded in 2000 with Randy to package comic-book properties for publishing, motion pictures, television and the Internet. Jean-Marc has an MBA from the Paris Business School (ESCP) and a Law Degree from the Sorbonne. --http://www.lofficier.com/ [May 2005]
Pulp Surrealism: Insolent Popular Culture in Early Twentieth-Century France (2000) - Robin Walz
Pulp Surrealism: Insolent Popular Culture in Early Twentieth-Century France (2000) - Robin Walz [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
In addition to its more well known literary and artistic origins, the French surrealist movement drew inspiration from currents of psychological anxiety and rebellion running through a shadowy side of mass culture, specifically in fantastic popular fiction and sensationalistic journalism. The provocative nature of this insolent mass culture resonated with the intellectual and political preoccupations of the surrealists, as Robin Walz demonstrates in this fascinating study. Pulp Surrealism weaves an interpretative history of the intersection between mass print culture and surrealism, re-evaluating both our understanding of mass culture in early twentieth-century Paris and the revolutionary aims of the surrealist movement.
Pulp Surrealism presents four case studies, each exploring the out-of the-way and impertinent elements which inspired the surrealists. Walz discusses Aragon's Le paysan de Paris, one of the great surrealist novels of Paris. He considers the popular series of Fantmes crime novels; the Parisan press coverage of the arrest, trial, and execution of mass-murderer Landru; and the surrealist inquiry "Is Suicide a Solution?", which Walz juxtaposes with reprints of actual suicide faits divers (sensationalist newspaper blurbs).
Although surrealist interest in sensationalist popular culture eventually waned, this exploration of mass print culture as one of the cultural milieux from which surrealism emerged ultimately calls into question assumptions about the avant-garde origins of modernism itself.
About the Author
Robin Walz is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alaska Southeast.
See also: surrealism - pulp - France - popular culture
your Amazon recommendations