Item Detail
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22546
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0
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0
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English
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Fictional Documentary : The Other as France in Mérimée's 'Les Mormons'
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French Literature Studies : The Documentary Impulse in French Literature
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Amsterdam
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Rodopi
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51-64
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"Published in 1853, Prosper Mérimée's article on Mormons serves ostensibly to educate the French public concerning an American religious restoration. However, a closer reading reveals similarities between this religious restoration and Louis-Napoléon's restoration of the Empire. Writing about Mormons allowed Mérimée's to criticise the new Emperor subversively while hiding behind a mask of scholarship. Further, 'Les Mormons' calls into question the division between fiction and scholarship and challenges traditional notions of reading documentary." [Author's abstract]