Interpreting the republic : marginalization and belonging in contemporary French novels and films / Vinay Swamy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Swamy, Vinay.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Begag, Azouz, 1957-.

French literature--20th century--Influence.

French literature.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Marginality, Social--France.

Marginality, Social.

Criticism and interpretation.

Motion pictures.

France.

Motion pictures--France--Influence.

Alienation (Social psychology) in literature.

French literature--21st century--History and criticism.

Begag, Azouz, 1957---Criticism and interpretation.

Begag, Azouz.

Physical Description:

xxxiv, 173 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, [2011]

Summary:

Interpreting the Republic focuses on contemporary French literary and cinematic works (1986-2003) that, by giving voice to those who find themselves marginalized by French society, reflect on what it means to belong to a nation such as France. While citizenship and belonging can be, and indeed are, interpreted differently depending on the sociocultural and political context, it is the foundational universalist republican principle of egalitarianism that has remained the sacred cow of French society. One of the major claims of this study is that the rigidity of French national discourse that attempts to impose a certain homogeneity in its official identificatory practices-all citizens are French, and thus difference (ethnic, sexual, or other) ceases to matter-is but one of the many possible interpretations of the notion of the Republic. Vinay Swamy explores how such supposedly unshakeable principles can be, and often are, reinterpreted in novel ways by the works analyzed in this study, which carve out niches for their protagonists that are otherwise foreclosed in the French national space.

Swamy examines the different tactics of identification deployed in works ranging from early romans beurs by Azouz Begag, Farida Belghoul, and Soraya Nini and Allah Superstar, the 2003 satirical novel by Y.B., to a number of films, including Gazon maudit (1995), Ma vie en rose (1997), Le Placard (2001), and Chouchou (2003), all of which (re)interpret the Republic in an effort to legitimize their protagonists' otherwise marginalized social position(s). He demonstrates how all these works put pressure on an unacknowledged understanding of the institutional positions and underscores some of the central concerns of these works, which include a quest to unravel often-thorny questions such as "Who represents the Republic?" or "Who is represented by the institution of republican ideals?" and as a corollary, "Who or what is not represented?" In privileging moments of such questioning, Interpreting the Republic underscores some of the discursive limits of the understanding of multicultural identity formation in contemporary France. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Ethnicizing the National, Nationalizing the Ethnic 1

Defining Belonging 7

Cultural and Fictive Constructs of National Identity 14

Should Paradise Be Private? 18

2 The Society of Spectacle in Post 9/11 France 27

9/11 and Literature 29

From Begag's Béni to Y.B.'s Kamel 32

Kamel's France 34

(Re)interpreting Kamel's France 42

France Distilled 47

3 Reading Gender into Ethnicity 51

Fixing Identity: The Beur Conundrum 54

Nini's "Beurette" 58

Belghoul's Georgette! 68

4 Of Lesbians and Cross-dressers 81

Locating Balasko 86

Subverting the Triangle in Gazon Maudit 86

Sexuality, Authorship and the Dissident Potential 97

The French Connection in Ma Vie En Rose 99

Trajectories for "Tom Girls" 100

Fantasy and the Geographies of Transgender Desire 108

5 In the Shadow of the Republic 117

PaCS and the Republic 121

Pignon's Placard 125

The Figure of the Clandestine 129

Marking Change in Republican Rhetoric 134

French Dreams 137

Félix's Family 139.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739165362

0739165364

9780739165386

0739165380

OCLC:

697036804