The relationship between the made and the found is one of the most important themes in modern French literature. This collection of critical and creative writing explores how the interplay between the given and the imagined, the real and the virtual, the world as we find it and the world as we make it, functions as a generative matrix for literary experimentation. Each contributor considers the question of attention, and explores how attending to something - a text, a place, a moment, a detail - creates and transforms both perceiver and perceived.  Drawing together analyses of diverse literary movements - Surrealism, new autobiographical forms, le nouveau roman, the everyday, contemporary poetics, anthropology, urbanism and flanerie - this volume invites us to make new connections between many well-established themes. Critical thinking by renowned scholars appears alongside poetry and prose by leading writers from France and Britain, forging new relationships between scholarly and creative practices, and challenging us to cross the border between the two.

Soldano Ferrone received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Milan, Italy. Currently, he is a Professor in the Department of Pathology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University in New York. Prior to his present position, Dr. Ferrone was an Associate Member of Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, Calif., and Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the University of California at San Diego., Bjarte G. Solheim received his M.D. degree in 1965 from the University of Bergen, Norway, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Oslo, Norway, in 1972. Currently, he is head of the Blood Typing Laboratory, Rikshospitalet, The National Hospital, in Oslo, Norway.