Fictions of Race in Contemporary French Literature: French Writers, White Writing

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Étienne Achille (Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Villanova University) Oana Panaïté (Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Indiana University)

Fictions of Race in Contemporary French Literature

French Writers, White Writing

Étienne Achille (Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Villanova University), Oana Panaïté (Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Indiana University)

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English

Oxford University Press
23 June 2024

Literary theory; Literary studies: post-colonial literature; Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers

Contemporary French writers have embarked on various quests for new sources of thematic and formal inspiration which are increasingly tied to issues of postcolonial legacies. However, French literature has never been consistently examined through the lens of race, ethnicity, and its relation to (post)coloniality. Fictions of Race in Contemporary French Literature is the first scholarly study to engage with the figure of the White writer and explore the White literary gaze in contemporary France. The book highlights the inherent postcoloniality of White Hexagonal literature in a context marked by institutionalized colour-blindness, and offers a reflection on responsible writing in and about postcolonial France.

The book identifies a set of formal features, functions, and aesthetic dispositions which reveal the ways in which White writers grapple with

postcolonial subjects. It focuses on seven case studies featuring texts by Marie Darrieussecq, Virginie Despentes, Annie Ernaux, Nicolas Fargues, Pierre Lemaitre, Édouard Louis, and Nicolas Mathieu. Achille and Panaïté argue that it is imperative to recast the enduring boundedness of race and empire as a matter of equal concern to White and non-White writers.

By: Étienne Achille (Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies Villanova University), Oana Panaïté (Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Indiana University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 468g
ISBN: 9780198893134
ISBN 10: 0198893132
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 23 June 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1: The Universal Invisibility of the French White Writer: Il faut beaucoup aimer les hommes by Marie Darrieussecq 2: Colonial Detail and Textual (Dys)Function: Au revoir là-haut by Pierre Lemaitre 3: The Postcolonial as Vanishing Point: Les Années by Annie Ernaux 4: Chaos and Convergence: Vernon Subutex by Virginie Despentes 5: Postcolonial Otobiography: Histoire de la violence by Édouard Louis 6: Authoring Postcolonial Normality: Leurs enfants après eux by Nicolas Mathieu 7: Calling Out the iNovel: Je ne suis pas une héroïne by Nicolas Fargues Conclusion: The Kairos of White Writing. Building the Common Library of Literature in French

Étienne Achille is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Villanova University. His publications include the monograph Mythologies postcoloniales. Pour une décolonisation du quotidien (2018, co-authored with L. Moudileno;) and the volume Postcolonial Realms of Memory. Sites and Symbols in Modern France (2020, co-edited with C. Forsdick and L. Moudileno). Oana Panaïté is Ruth N. Halls Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the author of Des littératures-mondes en français. Écritures singulières, poétiques transfrontalières dans la prose contemporaine (2012), The Colonial Fortune in Contemporary Fiction in French (2017), and Necrofiction and the Politics of Literary Memory (2022).

Reviews for Fictions of Race in Contemporary French Literature: French Writers, White Writing

Is French literature locked into a white privilege that makes it incapable of thinking about race? A provocative reflection on the future of French universalism in the post-colonial era, taking us on a remarkable journey through contemporary 'white' literary creation. * Alexandre Gefen, Directeur de Recherche (CNRS) Author of La littérature est une affaire politique (2022) and Réparer le monde : La littérature française face au XXIe siècle (2017) * This book is a key intervention that no serious scholar of contemporary French literature can ignore. Debunking the claims to colour-blindness ingrained in republican universalist discourse, it challenges us to foreground the figure of the White writer in debates about race, culture and the afterlives of empire in France. The result is a robust refusal of any assumptions regarding the neutrality of Whiteness in French contexts and an assertion of the importance of postcoloniality for understandings of White and non-White authors alike. * Charles Forsdick, Drapers Professor of French, University of Cambridge * This book is a key intervention that no serious scholar of contemporary French literature can ignore. Debunking the claims to colour-blindness ingrained in republican universalist discourse, it challenges us to foreground the figure of the White writer in debates about race, culture and the afterlives of empire in France. The result is a robust refusal of any assumptions regarding the neutrality of Whiteness in French contexts and an assertion of the importance of postcoloniality for understandings of White and non-White authors alike. * Charles Forsdick, Drapers Professor of French, University of Cambridge *