Author Description

Due to its potent mix of triumph and controversy, the Liberation of France from Nazi Occupation continues to reverberate in the post-war politics and culture of France. Resistance euphoria was dominant, but not all French people felt equally liberated, either in mainland France or overseas, and at the heart of the Liberation lies the vexed question of the epuration, the punishment of the collaborators, or those held to be so. Presenting new research by leading specialists in the fields of history, literature and film studies, this stimulating volume is the very best in interdisciplinary scholarship and will define the subject for years to come. It situates the Liberation in the broadest possible context of image and event, a breadth which extends to questions of memory and analogy, and incorporates subtle layers of ambiguity. Gender issues are given prominence, and the challenging project of examining the ideas and reality of liberation, for French people generally, for writers and film-makers, for subject peoples in North Africa, West Africa and the Caribbean, lends the book its originality and purpose. The Liberation of France emerges as a rich area of theory, experience and opinion, much of it critical.