An edited collection bringing together a range of critical perspectives and approaches on the French beach from scholars and writers working in fields such as literature, film, philosophy, politics and geography.

The aims of the project are two-fold – a. to conduct a critical examination of the beach as it appears in 20th century French thought, literature and visual culture b. to offer up suggestions as to how the forgotten, intermediary spaces in between the cobblestones and the beach might be reintroduced to provide a richer topography of France and its others.

Where contributors are encouraged to bring their unique perspective and writing styles to the collection, rather than compiling a series of unrelated essay topics, the idea is to organise chapters in terms of keywords pertaining to the beach. Possible keywords might include but are not restricted to:

SAND – STONES – WAVES – SOLEIL – SUNBURN – SUNSTROKE - WIND – ROCKS – SEA – FOAM – LINES – BOATS – CLIFF – PARIS-PLAGE – WEEKEND – VACANCES – WRECK – JETΙE – CUT – LIMIT – EDGE VOID – LIGHT – SPACE – WHITE – BLINDING - EMPTINESS - NAKED – HEAT – SILENCE – DESERT – EXISTENTIALISM – LEISURE – COLONISATION - DUNES

If you are interested in participating in the project, we would be grateful if you could let us know the topic/keyword you would like to write on together with a preliminary abstract of approx 150-200 words by 30 November 2011. Full length papers should be 5,000-8,000 words. This will enable us to compile a more comprehensive proposal with a view to contacting potential publishers.