This volume combines the expertise of a large number of distinguished academics and promising younger scholars, from Europe and North America, writing about their specialisations from a variety of literary, historical, and theoretical perspectives. It is intended to serve as an introduction to the major writings in French and also to the literary, cultural, and intellectual history of France over the centuries and of the French-speaking world. It should be of use to undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers alike.

Although most major French and francophone authors are covered in the course of the volume and can be easily referenced in the index, The Cambridge History of French Literature is inspired not only by period and historical concerns but also by topical and theoretical points of view. The topics outlined in this introduction, and addressed variously through the contributions to this history, were selected on the basis of their continuing interest to current and future researchers, their relevance to the place of French-language writing in European and world cultural production, and as a way of distinguishing this volume from other such volumes produced in the past. Contributors were encouraged to address one or more of the following topics in their essays, not necessarily as the focus of the essay but as a way of suggesting how the subject of their discussion is informed by one or more of these issues.