Personnages is an intermediate French text that features a learner-centered, four-skills approach with a strong emphasis on oral communication. Students are exposed to the language and culture of the French-speaking world through features that present characters interacting in different Francophone settings. A revised full-color design makes the text organization easier to follow, enhances its visual appeal, and dramatizes its cultural material. The scope and sequence have been revised to make the amount of grammar presented in each chapter more manageable for students to learn. Culture is an integral part of what students learn and practice while using the text, which examines Francophone culture by highlighting 10 different French-speaking areas around the world.

Usually the term 'innovation' is used in connection with artists' and authors' themes and techniques. What we see in most studies about innovation is that its problematic aspects are related to problems in literary or artistic history and that scholars try to solve those problems in work-oriented research. Some scholars, however, especially emperical sociologists, claim that problems with respect to innovation cannot be solved without analyzing the cultural area where those problems arise. The major question that this book discusses concerns the role of art committees, literary, art and film critics, art collectors, museum directors, academic writers and other 'gatekeepers' with regard to different forms of art in the interbellum period as well as after World War II.