Internet Resources for French Language & Literature
There is a wealth of information on the World Wide Web, but sometimes it is difficult to find a good starting point. The following metasites, all of which require French reading ability, have been selected as good guides to French literature and language.Littérature de langue française en ligne
(City University of New York)
This metasite provides lists of, and links to, major French web sites worldwide, emphasising mainly Europe and North America. Listings of large general sites under the heading Meilleurs Sites: Bibliothéques, Banques de donnés littéraires are followed by lists of sites with a more specific literary or theatrical focus. Littérature de langue française en ligne also has sections on current French printed books, virtual texts, publishers and booksellers; on specific authors; and on cyberfiction. A handy feature of this metasite is its breakdown of French literary databases by region under the following headings: Afrique, Europe, France, Louisiane, New York City, Québec and Canada (including sites in the Atlantic provinces). The url for this metasite is: http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/french/lit.html
ClicNet: Littérature francophone virtuelle
(Swarthmore)
This metasite brings together a collection of virtual French-language resources for the benefit of students of French language and literature, learners of French as a second language, and "et tous ceux qui s'intéressent aux cultures, aux arts et aux littératures francophones". It includes links to over 3,000 other Web sites. Its virtual texts and links are grouped under the following headings: Actualité littéraire, L'humour en littérature, Publications de ClicNet, Autobiographie, Listes de diffusion littéraires, Recherche littéraire, Bibliographies, Littérature de jeunesse, Récits de voyage, Biographies, Littérature médiévale, Romans Citations , Nouvelles et Contes, Romans policiers, Correspondances, Philosophie, Science fiction, Ecrits politiques, Poésie contemporaine, Théâtre et Arts de la scéne, Entretiens, Poésie moderne, XIXe siècle, Poésie du domaine public. Clicnet places particular emphasis on source materials on Francophone literary humour. The url of this site is: http://clicnet.swarthmore.edu/litterature/litterature.html
L'ILE: le Centre de documentation virtuel sur la littérature québécoise.
An important literary site funded by the Government of Québec, L'ILE is a joint initiative of the Union des écrivains et écrivaines québécois, the Bibliothéque Nationale du Québec, the Centre de recherche en littérature québécoise (CRELIQ) at the Université Laval, and the Centre d'études québécoises (CETUQ) at the Université de Montréal. Phase one of L'ILE currently includes bibliographies and biographic profiles of over 640 québécois writers, with 255 additional hypertext links, while phase two provides access to over 100 000 pages of articles on québécois writers and their works. (The term québécois is interpreted broadly: for example, non-native writers like Gabrielle Roy, Antonine Maillet and Naïm Kattan are included). The biographic profiles, usually accompanied by a photograph of the author, are listed both in straight alphabetical sequence by author's name and alphabetically within genre subgroups. Critical articles on each author and title, as well as on related themes and topics, are also available but can be accessed only by subscribers. A subscription costs anywhere from $200 to $1500 according to the number of documents the subscriber wishes to access. The url for this site is: http://www.litterature.org/
Voice of the Shuttle
This is a very large collection of links to sites covering both humanities and social sciences, has a useful section of links to French literary topics. There is substantial overlap with Littérature de langue française en ligne and Clicnet but VoS contains some links which they lack. The url for the French literature section of VoS is: http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2719#id961
July 15, 2008
Colleen Field
