French Literature Reviews - 2026
Anchors and Passages
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Anchors/ Passages
Edited by
Claudine Armand, André Kaenel and Claire Omhovere
Cross-Perspectives on the Anglophone World Series
The articles collected here represent a selection of papers presented at the "Anchors/Passages" conference organized by the IDEA research group
(Interdisciplinarity in Anglophone Studies, formerly CEA, Centre for Anglophone Studies) at the University of Nancy 2. Favoring interdisciplinary approaches, they examine the relationships between forms of anchoring and passage. Among the questions addressed: how does the transfer of conceptual tools occur between various disciplines? What dynamic allows for the shift from one semiotic field to another, such as image and text, or text and music? What permeability exists between
dominant and minority cultures? Under what influences do historical hegemony, an aesthetic style, or a linguistic norm become established, and also when and why do they fall into disuse? What opposition does the transmission of norms, values, and representations encounter when moving from one domain to another, or even from one era to the next? Finally, what conflicting undercurrents persist behind every form of anchoring: phenomena of resistance, persistence, resurgence?
The forms of displacement explored in this volume can offer perceptions that are both unexpected and
singular. This holds true for many passages examined here, from the gesture that blurs a cliché to the editing
that gives meaning to a film, from the writer who transmits words, to the sailor who, by twisting language, makes it his own.
From a researcher's perspective, engaging with the shifting forms of culture also means accepting critical scrutiny and refusing to be complacent in studying the status quo or returns to equilibrium. Thinking about change and articulating its dynamic effects, as these essays confirm, is not straightforward: it requires us to challenge received ideas, dare to embrace multidisciplinary openness, and also accept letting go of our certainties.
Contents
Intersemiotic Passages
Claudine ARMAND
Interview with BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD
Marie Danielle KOECHLIN
The Image Pregnant with the Word
Jean-Philippe HÉBERLÉ
Byzantium: From W. B. Yeats to Michael Tippett
Antoine TATIN
The Member of the Wedding by Fred Zinnemann (1953)
and the Question of Aesthetic Anchoring in Origins
Catherine DELESSE
Anchoring of the Linguistic Message and Passage of/to Meaning
in Comics
Community, Ethnic, and National Anchors
Henry DANIELS
Unruly Anchors: A Preliminary Formal and Semantic Analysis of English Historical Sea-slang
Yann ROBLOU
Rebirth of a Nation. Gangs of New York, by Martin Scorsese
Susanne BERTHIER-FOGLAR
American New Mexico: Whites and Indians in the Doolittle Report
Timothy MASON
Anchors in the Desert Sand: Sounding the Cultural Waters in Australia
Lionel LARRÉ
Auto-Topographical Inkings, or How to Write Oneself into the Landscape
Transfers, Tensions, Transgressions
Pascale DROUET
“You shall comprehend all vagrom men”: The Offence of Vagrancy in Elizabethan England
Jeanine BELGODERE
Isadora Duncan's Dance: Quest for a New Eden
Hélène QUANQUIN
Man, Future or End of American Feminism?
Stiffed: The Betrayal of Modern Man by Susan Faludi
Christiane SAINT-JEAN PAULIN
When Youth Casts Off the Moorings: The Passage
to the American Cultural Revolution
Richard SOMERSET
Science Wars Past and Present
Michel MOREL
Coda: Reflections on Critical Distance
The "Cross-Perspectives on the Anglophone World" series examines the theoretical and practical conditions that enable transitions between fields and disciplines, as well as the methods, concepts, and tools employed. It aims to enrich the debate on the evolution of English studies in France, where the interdisciplinary dimension is increasingly present but not always the subject of specific reflection.
Publisher: University Press of Nancy
2006, 16x24 softcover, 254p. 26 euros
1 CD-ROM included
This volume gathers selected papers from a conference organized by the IDEA research group at the University of Nancy 2, focusing on the complex dynamics between cultural anchoring and transition. Moving across diverse disciplines, the contributions investigate how conceptual tools, linguistic norms, and aesthetic styles shift between fields such as literature, visual arts, music, and history. By examining phenomena like intersemiotic transfer, minority cultures, and historical hegemony, the collection highlights the tensions inherent in cultural transmission and the persistent undercurrents of resistance and resurgence that challenge established intellectual norms.
Part of the Cross-Perspectives on the Anglophone World series, the book serves researchers, scholars, and advanced students in cultural studies, literary theory, and interdisciplinary humanities. It provides valuable theoretical perspectives on how academic disciplines interact and evolve, particularly within the context of French higher education. Readers interested in semiotics, cultural geography, and the methodology of cross-disciplinary research will find robust discussions on how meaning is constructed, transmitted, and transformed across various semiotic and social domains.