JANA VERHOEVEN, Foreword
FABRICE DAUCHEZ & JACQUELINE DUTTON, Ambiguous Australian Stereotypes in French Literature: The Case of Nullarbor by David Fauquemberg
The authors investigate the use and significance of stereotypes in David Fauquemberg’s Nullarbor. Dauchez and Dutton situate this recently published book in the tradition of French travel writing about the antipodes and examine how Fauquemberg negotiates the conflicting tendencies between exotic stereotypes on the one hand and authentic, original observation and narration on the other in his representations of Australia and its people.
Keywords: travel writing, Percy G. Adams, Travelers and Travel Liars, indigenous Australians, exoticism, stereotyping, landscape
CHLOE PATTON, ‘New Piety’ and Women’s Agency: A Critique of Bronwyn Winter’s Atheist Feminism
An exploration of the issue of the religiosity of young Muslim women in Western societies and their capacity to make free and autonomous choices. The article discusses Hijab and the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarf by Australian feminist Bronwyn Winter. Placing Winter’s book in the context of recent scholarship on the topic, particularly of anthropological studies on the so-called ‘new piety’, Patton argues that feminist scholars need to pay closer attention to the agency of young women who wear the hijab.
Keywords: human rights, racism, secularism, hijab, freedom of conscience, oppression of women, women’s agency
WILLIAM LAND, Correcting the Record: The Founding of the Lapérouse Museum in Sydney
The author is President of the Friends of the Lapérouse Museum Association. He argues that the recent NSW government publication Challenges in the Landscape overlooks the role played by the French government, the French-Australian business and artistic community and the Lapérouse Association for the Australian Bicentenary in the creation of the Lapérouse Museum in Sydney.
Keywords: Lapérouse Museum, Sydney, Pierre Roussel, Dr Anne-Marie Nisbet
LAURENCE MOREUX, Discourse at the ‘LC Salon’: French and Australian Conversational Styles—A Study in Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings
The author gives an account of a recent meeting organised by the ‘LC Salons Association’ in Sydney where the language researcher Kerry Mullan and the author of Almost French Sarah Turnbull led a discussion on the cultural differences between Australian and French ways of communicating.
Keywords: Lycée Condorcet International French School in Sydney, Sophie Boland, Kerry MUllan, Sarah Tunrbull, Christophe Hoareau
LIA HILLS, Marie Darrieussecq in Melbourne
Lia Hills is the translator of Marie Darrieussecq’s latest novel, Breathing Underwater. She gives a brief account of Darrieussecq’s participation in the 2009 Melbourne Writers’ Festival.
Keywords: Marie Darrieussecq, Melbourne Writers’ Festival 2009
Jean-François Vernay, Panorama du roman australien des origines à nos jours, reviewed by Maurice Blackman
Xavier Pons Messengers of Eros: Representations of Sex in Australian Writing, reviewed by Hélène Jaccomard
La cuisinière républicaine, Paris, Mérigot jeune, An III [1794-1795]. Reprinted Luzarches, Morcrette, with a short historical essay by Daniel Morcrette, 1976, reviewed by Juliet Flesch
Colin Dyer, The French Explorers and Sydney, reviewed by Margaret Sankey
Charles Sowerwine, France since 1870: Culture, Society and the Making of the Republic, reviewed by Robert Aldrich
Ann Galbally, A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent Van Gogh and John Peter Russell, reviewed by Patricia Clancy
Book Notes, by Elaine Lewis
Aileen La Tourette, Late Connections
Pierre Grundmann, L’instinct de la tueuse
ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes