Forty Years of the Fifth French Republic

The Editors: Maggie Allison is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Bradford. Her research is in media analysis with particular emphasis on the representation of women in the political arena both in Britain and in France, including the elections of May/June 1997. She has published articles on abortion in France and on French media representations of sexual harassment. With Richard Cleminson she recently co-edited In/visibility: Gender and Representation in a European Context. She is currently writing on the portrayal of women, and also their professional role, in contemporary French media. Owen Heathcote is Senior Lecturer and Head of French in the Department of Modern Languages, University of Bradford. He researches on the relationship between violence, gender and representation in French literature and film, and has published extensively on nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers such as Balzac, Guibert, Jourdan, Wittig and Duras. With Alex Hughes and James Williams he has recently co-edited Gay Signatures. Gay and Lesbian Theory, Fiction and Film in France, 1945-1995 (Berg). He is currently editing a volume on gendered violence in French literature, from Constant to Duras.