Essays in French Literature and Culture

The journal was established in 1964 by James R. Lawler.[5] In 1975, the journal's editorship passed on to Denis Boak who, in a commemorative issue celebrating the journal's fiftieth anniversary, argues that Essays in French Literature was a "free-standing intellectual endeavour" providing "an extra outlet for young scholars to publish".[6] He was succeeded by Andrew Hunwick in 1995. Hélène Jaccomard took over in 2007.
A growing interest in cultural studies in the field of French studies led to a widening of the scope of the journal and its renaming in 2008. The new title reflects this wider emphasis on culture.
In the context of the crisis in academic publishing,[7] and as one of only two French Studies academic journals in Australia, Essays in French Literature and Culture has shown a remarkable ability to survive thanks to the quality of the articles it stringently selects, and its widening readership which is its only financial means of support.
The journal's importance is acknowledged by the Australian Society of French Studies[8] and Informit database.[9]

• Prof. Hélène Jaccomard, managing editor, The University of Western Australia
• Associate Professor Bonnie Thomas, associate editor, The University of Western Australia
• Prof. Véronique Duché, University of Melbourne
• Dr Paul Gibbard, The University of Western Australia
• Dr Rosemary Lancaster, The University of Western Australia
• Prof. Louise Hardwick, University of Birmingham
• Prof. Srilata Ravi, University of Alberta
• Dr Jean-Marie Volet, The University of Western Australia.

In the first forty years of its existence, the journal published essays spontaneously submitted to the Editors. Since 2007 many issues have been thematic and guest edited by experts in the field. All the contributions go through a thorough double-blind evaluation by independent assessors. Themes recently covered by the journal:

- issue nr 45: Foreign? Writing in French (2008)
- issue nr 46 : Sports (2009)
- issue nr 47 and 48: Landscape and Memory (2010 and 2011)
- issue nr 49: The Paratext (2012)
- issue nr 50: Playtime (2013)
- issue nr 51: Représenter la Grande Guerre: les écrivains et les artistes face à l’épreuve (1914-1920) (2014)
- issue nr 52: Diaspora, Afropolitanism and Congolese Literature (2015)
- issue nr 53: Conflict, dialogue and representation (2016)
- issue nr 54: Hidden Words, Hidden Worlds (France 1939–1945) (2017)
- issue nr 55 : Miscellaneous (2018).
- issue nr 56 : “Mines de rien”. L’Antillaise et l’Afropéenne face aux tropologies, entre mythes et réalités au fil du temps (2019)
- issue nr 57 : Identité et Environnement
- issue nr 58 : The Critical French Medical Humanities

Theme: 'Retranslation revisited/La Retraduction revisitée', Edited by Hélène Jaccomard, University of Western Australia

Aurore Dericq Facchinetti, Étude croisée de deux versions françaises de Suétone en 1770
Sanja Perovic and Brecht Deseure, Radical Retranslations of the Revolutionary Era: Britain, France, Italy (1789-1815)
Lisa Kemper, Analyser les Henriades allemandes à l’aide de Berman
Capucine Echiffre, Trois traductions françaises d’un poème de Langston Hughes (1947-1963)
Hélène Jaccomard, Traduire/retraduire le vernaculaire et l’érotisme de Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Jeff Barda, Against Translation? Displacement, Procedures and Use in Contemporary French Poetic Practice
Daniel Nabil Maroun, Subjectivity and Seropositivity: Retranslating Guillaume Dustan
Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan et Jean Anderson, Pourquoi une seconde traduction de Pōtiki de Patricia Grace?

• Issue 60 (2023) Matter of taste (closed)
• Issue 61 (2024) Festschrift in Honour of Professor Beverley Noakes (open)

The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index,[10] and EBSCO and ProQuest databases.

• Official website and where the journal can be purchased