伝統豊かで変化に富み、時間と空間が広範囲に及ぶフランス文学。主人公の冒険や葛藤に文学の社会的慣習の転換を投影する叙事詩、小説、戯曲、詩、脚本などのテクストに焦点をあて、その生き生きとした文学の世界に読者を誘います。本書では、さまざまな時代、様式、ジャンル、テーマのフランス文学に加え、西インド諸島や西アフリカのフランス語圏で生まれたものについても紹介します。
  

• Focuses on texts that concern protagonists whose adventures and conflicts reveal shifts in literary and social practices
• Explores the notion of the 'problematic hero'
• Introduces a number of major works from a wide variety of periods, styles, genres, and themes
• Examines how each work fits into society and its concerns and values

  
The heritage of literature in the French language is rich, varied, and extensive in time and space; appealing both to its immediate public, readers of French, and also to a global audience reached through translations and film adaptations. 
  
The first great works of this repertory were written in the twelfth century in northern France, and now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, include authors writing in many parts of the world, ranging from the Caribbean to Western Africa. 
  
French Literature: A Very Short Introduction introduces this lively literary world by focusing on texts - epics, novels, plays, poems, and screenplays - that concern protagonists whose adventures and conflicts reveal shifts in literary and social practices. 
  
From the hero of the medieval Song of Roland to the Caribbean heroines of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem or the European expatriate in Japan in Fear and Trembling, these problematic protagonists allow us to understand what interests writers and readers across the wide world of French.