The Tel Quel Reader Edited by Patrick Ffrench and Roland-Francois Lack

The Tel Quel Reader presents for the first time in English many of the key essays that played an instrumental role in shaping the contours of literary and cultural debate in the 1960s and 1970s. Tel Quel, a French literary review and intellectual grouping that ran from 1960 to 1982, published some of the key essays of major poststructuralist thinkers from Michel Foucault to Roland Barthes. Julia Kristeva herself was a member of Tel Quel's editorial board. The Tel Quel Reader provides resource for students of literary theory, cultural studies, philosophy and French studies. It will also be essential reading for students of art theory, visual studies and film and anyone studying poststructuralist theory today.

The work of the French literary review, intellectual grouping and publishing team, Tel Quel, had a profound impact on literary and cultural debate in the 1960s and '70s. From its beginning in 1960 to its closure in 1982, it published some of the key essays of major poststructuralist thinkers from Roland Barthes to Michel Foucault and Julia Kristeva.
The Tel Quel Reader presents for the first time in English many of the key essays written by the Tel Quel group. It fills a much needed gap in the literature available on the poststructuralist movement. Essays by Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, a member of Tel Quel's editorial board, and a fascinating interview with Roland Barthes are all here made available for the first time in English. It provides a unique insight into the poststructuralist movement and presents some of the pioneering essays on literature and culture, film, semiotics and psychoanalysis.

Acknowledgements, Introduction, Chronological history of Tel Quel, 1. Science, Tel Quel, 'Division of the Assembly', J. Kristeva, 'Towards a Semiology of Paragrams', J-J. Goux, 'Marx and the Inscription of Work', J-L. Baudry, 'Freud and "Literary Creation"', 2. Literature, Michel Foucault, 'Distance, Aspect, Origin', M. Pleynet, 'The Readability of Sade', P. Sollers, 'The Bataille Act', J. Kristeva, 'The Subject in Process', 3. M. Devade, 'Chromatic Painting', M. Pleynet, 'Heavenly Glory'/'Thetic "Madness"', G. Scarpetta, 'The American Body', P. Sollers, 'Paradis' (excerpt), Dissemination, Roland Barthes, 'Responses', Bibliography, Index.