From The Editor's Desk

Category	Submitted	Accepted	Rejected	Under Evaluation	Inactive
Literature	62 (52.9%)	16 (25.8%)	19 (30.7%)	17 (27.4%)	10 (16.1%)
Pedagogy	19 (16.2%)	8 (42.1%)	8 (42.1%)	2 (10.5%)	1 ( 5.3%)
Civilization	12 (10.3%)	6 (50.0%)	2 (16.7%)	3 (25.0%)	1 ( 8.3%)
Film	5 ( 4.3%)	1 (20.0%)	0	3 (60.0%)	1 (20.0%)
Linguistics	3 ( 2.6%)	2 (66.7%)	1 (33.3%)	0	0
Miscellaneous	16 (13.7%)	16 (100%)	0	0	0
Totals	117 (100%)	49 (41.9%)	30 (25.6%)	26 (21.4%)	13 (11.1%)

Volume 76 will offer a delightful cornucopia of articles ranging from a study of François Villon's writing of the uses and abuses of legality in his Testament in this issue to a consideration of Jacques Tati's filmic rendering of urban Paris in December. We begin, of course, with l'Année littéraire in poetry, the novel, and theater, joined by a discussion of l'Année culturelle.

The second annual "Professional Issues" rubric features an essay by Laurence Porter, who takes on the commercialization of the academy, arguing that quantity is displacing quality, and that a corporate mentality threatens our ability to bring first-rate classroom instruction to our students.

There are many pedagogical offerings this year, and an essay in the current issue shows how to encourage students to think and write for themselves by using Kieslowski's Bleu, part of his Bleu, Blanc, Rouge trilogy. In December there is a discussion of the PACE model, which promotes story-telling as a means for integrating form and meaning and providing real communication by moving beyond rote oral exercises. Also in December, two authors, one a professor of marketing, the other a professor of French, describe their interdisciplinary travel course. Another writer shows how to carry out psycholinguistically motivated grammar instruction. The February issue contains two articles about the Web: one offers a step by step approach to sound practice through a variety of guided exercises, while a second author shows how to use the electronic classroom to create advertisements in intermediate French. A third article presents a compelling discussion of a computer-mediated communication course involving written and oral exchange between students at an American university and students at a French university. The discussions are on cultural topics and based on a variety of images chosen by the students to represent their cultures. The goal is to confront myths and stereotypes about American and French culture.

In March one author demonstrates how to bring painting, photography, music, and film to bear in teaching Assia Djebar's Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, thus providing a model for interdisciplinary teaching. A second essay, provocatively entitled "If the Computer Did My Homework, How Come I Didn't Get an 'A'?" underscores the limits of translation programs like Babelfish, available on the Net, and shows us how to spot cheating and plagiarism. There is also a survey of 257 Indiana high school students, which provides data on student attitudes towards the study of French and recommends that teachers and administrators should consider student needs when designing foreign language curricula. Another essay shows how to design a course that combines theory and practice to teach French culture using books by Laurence Wylie and Jean-François Brière, and Raymonde Carroll. The April issue provides a persuasive piece on how to involve students in the sights, sounds, tastes, and smell of poetry.

French literature is the subject of many articles this year. In addition to the articles on Villon and l'Année littéraire in October, in December one author analyzes an ignored collection of Saint-John Perse's poetry, La Gloire des rois, while another shows how Zola borrowed extensively from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables in his La Fortune des Rougons. In the same issue another scholar studies Gide's use of theater and theatrical devices in L'Immoraliste, shedding new light on this classic. In February one of our authors examines Toussaint's La Télévision to show how we have become slaves to the electronic media, especially television, while another describes how Voltaire's Henriade was expurgated in order to make it acceptable to young students in the nineteenth century. Criticisms of the Church, as well as sensual passages and potentially revolutionary prose, were cut out by censors and other commentaries added.

Pascal Quignard's writing is assessed in March, as is the Manichean view of the universe held by Valentine Penrose and illustrated in her La Contesse sanglante, a shocking and provocative novel. In April there is a piece on the new Belgian sensation, Amélie Nothomb and her rewriting and rejection of the worldview offered in novels like Doctor Zhivago in her own Attentat. There is a study of nascent national identity in the medieval Chanson d'Antioch, which shows how Arabs and Turks are portrayed in stereotypical ways in order to further the propagandistic ends of the Crusades, although the Christians themselves are guilty of cannibalism. During the course of the year we present interviews with the ever-popular Annie Ernaux and Michel Tournier. There is also an interview with Pierre-Jakez Hélias, most famous for Le Cheval d'orgueil.

Francophone literature, with a special emphasis on the Antilles, will be featured in the Special Issue to appear in May of 2003 in honor of our meeting to be held in Martinique in July 2003. Nonetheless, there are several articles of note that you will want to consider before the Special Issue. One of these is about French-Canadian authors (in December) who spent time in the United States in the nineteenth century, such as Rémi Tremblay, who wrote of American life and racism, as well as life in French Canada. Another essay, also in the December issue, considers the Cameroonian author, Werewere Liking's L'Amour-cent-vies" and how Liking reinvents received Cameroonian history in order to claim historicity of women's roles and achieve ritual healing for Africa. In April one of our authors considers "La Langue de l'autre dans le roman beur" and shows how humor may lead to understanding across cultures.

As always we highlight articles on French and Francophone culture, including one entitled "La Guerre d'Algérie expliquée à nos enfants," (April) which scrutinizes French school textbooks for "Troisième" and "Terminale" in order to show the Algerian War has been presented since the 1980s in French schools. Another article (in December) makes a convincing case that Jean Genet was not anti-Semitic in his writing or personal life.

Besides the essay already discussed about Jacques Tati and his critical commentary on the modernization of Paris, we also publish a piece on film that considers Claude Berri's Germinal as a national icon and demonstrates how the film's potential for social criticism was undermined, leading to "imprecise history, weak social criticism, and mediocre cinema."

Though it is too soon for articles which deal with the shocking results of the first round of the 2002 French Presidential elections, James McNab does discuss how "l'insécurité" became an issue on July 14, 2001 when Jacques Chirac made it one in his annual address to the French. This set the stage for the battle that led to Jean-Marie LePen becoming Chirac's opponent in the second round in May 2002. In closing I want to thank Barbara Bowen for her many years (over fifteen!) of service as an Assistant Editor for Literature. A well-known Sixteenth Century specialist with books on Rabelais and Montaigne among others, "Ba" always remained true to close textual criticism and was never seduced by fads or jargon. We wish her well in retirement and welcome Edward Benson as her successor. I also want to thank Catherine Slawy-Sutton, who has given up her position as Review Editor for Literary History and Criticism. Catherine has done a terrific job over the past three years, and has prepared the reviews for this year's volume. She will certainly be successful in her new position as Chair of French at Davidson College. Catherine will be succeeded by Hope Christiansen, a long-time reviewer for the French Review.

I must also tell you of the sad death of André Prévos, who died in his sleep last March. André was a frequent contributor of book reviews to the French Review and an expert on French Hip-Hop music, who only a few years ago published on that topic in our own pages. André wrote reviews of books on every facet of contemporary French life and culture, and on topics most reviewers would never think of, such as French firemen (April 2002). You will find one of his last reviews in this issue.

Finally, I want to encourage you to participate in the fourth annual Semaine du Français next month from 7-13 November. Fêtons le français et son avenir!

Christopher P. Pinet