Mehammed Amadeus Mack
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823274604
- eISBN:
- 9780823274659
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823274604.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Sexagon studies the broad politicization of sexuality in French debates about immigration and diversity since the 1980s, and how that politicization is reflected in and also created by French ...
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Sexagon studies the broad politicization of sexuality in French debates about immigration and diversity since the 1980s, and how that politicization is reflected in and also created by French cultural productions. Surveying representations of communities of immigrant origin, as well as discourses circulating within them, it focuses in on literature, film, psychoanalysis, ethnopsychiatry, erotica, and feminist and gay and lesbian activist rhetoric to examine where sexualized representations take a political turn. It furthermore examines how guardians of French Culture have judged the integration of Muslim immigrants from North and West Africa—as well as their French descendants—according to these Muslims’ attitudes about gender and sexuality. More precisely, it studies the symptomatic “frustration” that French establishment figures consistently exhibit in the face of changes to a familiar France and argues that this frustration gravitates around the concept of virilism. A volatile virilism would not only animate the “difficult” Arab, black and Muslim boys so often the focus of sensational newscasts, it would also define their neighborhoods in the banlieues, their religion of Islam, and the notion of immigration itself. The frustrations studied here are crucially inflamed by a defining element of these virility cultures, namely their clandestinity. Mirroring the secret and underground qualities of “illegal” immigration, the proponents of clandestine cultures, both gay and straight, choose to withdraw away from official scrutiny within ethnic communitarian shelters that are anathema to the Republic’s desires for universalism and transparency. These sealed-off spaces of virile domain are all the more “annoying” to the surveillance apparatus for their impenetrability.Less
Sexagon studies the broad politicization of sexuality in French debates about immigration and diversity since the 1980s, and how that politicization is reflected in and also created by French cultural productions. Surveying representations of communities of immigrant origin, as well as discourses circulating within them, it focuses in on literature, film, psychoanalysis, ethnopsychiatry, erotica, and feminist and gay and lesbian activist rhetoric to examine where sexualized representations take a political turn. It furthermore examines how guardians of French Culture have judged the integration of Muslim immigrants from North and West Africa—as well as their French descendants—according to these Muslims’ attitudes about gender and sexuality. More precisely, it studies the symptomatic “frustration” that French establishment figures consistently exhibit in the face of changes to a familiar France and argues that this frustration gravitates around the concept of virilism. A volatile virilism would not only animate the “difficult” Arab, black and Muslim boys so often the focus of sensational newscasts, it would also define their neighborhoods in the banlieues, their religion of Islam, and the notion of immigration itself. The frustrations studied here are crucially inflamed by a defining element of these virility cultures, namely their clandestinity. Mirroring the secret and underground qualities of “illegal” immigration, the proponents of clandestine cultures, both gay and straight, choose to withdraw away from official scrutiny within ethnic communitarian shelters that are anathema to the Republic’s desires for universalism and transparency. These sealed-off spaces of virile domain are all the more “annoying” to the surveillance apparatus for their impenetrability.
Kathryn Kleppinger and Laura Reeck (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781786941138
- eISBN:
- 9781789629255
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941138.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Post-Migratory Cultures in Postcolonial France offers a critical assessment of the ways in which French writers, filmmakers, musicians and other artists descended from immigrants from former colonial ...
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Post-Migratory Cultures in Postcolonial France offers a critical assessment of the ways in which French writers, filmmakers, musicians and other artists descended from immigrants from former colonial territories bring their specificity to bear on the bounds and applicability of French republicanism, “Frenchness” and national identity, and contemporary cultural production in France.Less
Post-Migratory Cultures in Postcolonial France offers a critical assessment of the ways in which French writers, filmmakers, musicians and other artists descended from immigrants from former colonial territories bring their specificity to bear on the bounds and applicability of French republicanism, “Frenchness” and national identity, and contemporary cultural production in France.
John M. Merriman
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195064384
- eISBN:
- 9780199854424
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195064384.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter considers the question of the “fearsome faubourgs,” when and how the physical margins of urban life came to be so suspect. The urban periphery, the leading edge of urbanization and the ...
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This chapter considers the question of the “fearsome faubourgs,” when and how the physical margins of urban life came to be so suspect. The urban periphery, the leading edge of urbanization and the future of the city, challenged government officials, urban elites, and the police. If, during the Restoration, the uncertainty of the city outskirts seemed fearsome, during the July Monarchy and, above all, after the revolution of 1848, faubourg and banlieue took on a more concrete image, that of increasingly organized workers contending for power.Less
This chapter considers the question of the “fearsome faubourgs,” when and how the physical margins of urban life came to be so suspect. The urban periphery, the leading edge of urbanization and the future of the city, challenged government officials, urban elites, and the police. If, during the Restoration, the uncertainty of the city outskirts seemed fearsome, during the July Monarchy and, above all, after the revolution of 1848, faubourg and banlieue took on a more concrete image, that of increasingly organized workers contending for power.
Kathryn A. Kleppinger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781381960
- eISBN:
- 9781786945204
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Branding the Beur Author analyzes mainstream media promotion of literature written by the descendants of North African immigrants to France (often called beurs). Launched in the early 1980s, ...
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Branding the Beur Author analyzes mainstream media promotion of literature written by the descendants of North African immigrants to France (often called beurs). Launched in the early 1980s, conversations between journalists and ‘beur’ authors delve into contemporary debates such as racism in the 1980s and Islam in French society in the 1990s. But the interests of journalists looking for sensational subject matter also heavily shape the promotion and reception of these novels: only the ‘beur’ authors who use a realist style to write about the challenges faced by the North African immigrant population in France—and who engage on-air with French identity politics and immigration—receive multiple invitations to participate in interviews. Previous scholarship has taken a necessary first step by analyzing the social and political stakes of this literature (using labels such as ‘beur’ and/or ‘banlieue,’ to designate its urban, economically distressed setting), but this book argues that this approach reproduces the selection criteria deployed by the media that determine which texts receive commercial and critical support. By demonstrating how minority-based literary labels such as ‘francophone’ and ‘postcolonial’ are always already defined by the socio-political context in which such works are published and promoted, this book establishes that these labels are tautological and cannot reflect the thematic and stylistic richness of beur (and other minority) production in France.Less
Branding the Beur Author analyzes mainstream media promotion of literature written by the descendants of North African immigrants to France (often called beurs). Launched in the early 1980s, conversations between journalists and ‘beur’ authors delve into contemporary debates such as racism in the 1980s and Islam in French society in the 1990s. But the interests of journalists looking for sensational subject matter also heavily shape the promotion and reception of these novels: only the ‘beur’ authors who use a realist style to write about the challenges faced by the North African immigrant population in France—and who engage on-air with French identity politics and immigration—receive multiple invitations to participate in interviews. Previous scholarship has taken a necessary first step by analyzing the social and political stakes of this literature (using labels such as ‘beur’ and/or ‘banlieue,’ to designate its urban, economically distressed setting), but this book argues that this approach reproduces the selection criteria deployed by the media that determine which texts receive commercial and critical support. By demonstrating how minority-based literary labels such as ‘francophone’ and ‘postcolonial’ are always already defined by the socio-political context in which such works are published and promoted, this book establishes that these labels are tautological and cannot reflect the thematic and stylistic richness of beur (and other minority) production in France.
Alison J. Murray Levine
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781786940414
- eISBN:
- 9781789629408
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786940414.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter considers five films from among the rich and diverse archive of French documentaries devoted to school experience from the past twenty years. The filmmakers included are Denis ...
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This chapter considers five films from among the rich and diverse archive of French documentaries devoted to school experience from the past twenty years. The filmmakers included are Denis Gheerbrant, Nicolas Philibert, Régis Sauder, Pascale Diez, and Julie Bertucelli. This collection of films by a diverse mix of filmmakers examines life in an equally diverse mix of schools and classes. They share an interest in configuring the space of the school in terms of experiential relationships rather than expository argumentation. They invite viewers to explore a particular space and develop a sense of co-presence with its inhabitants, resulting in a sense of ecological connection within a shared ecosystem rather than identification with, or mastery of, the subjects in the film. The films highlighted in this chapter are considered within the context of contemporary debates about the “school crisis” in France, and viewer responses to two of the films are studied in detail.Less
This chapter considers five films from among the rich and diverse archive of French documentaries devoted to school experience from the past twenty years. The filmmakers included are Denis Gheerbrant, Nicolas Philibert, Régis Sauder, Pascale Diez, and Julie Bertucelli. This collection of films by a diverse mix of filmmakers examines life in an equally diverse mix of schools and classes. They share an interest in configuring the space of the school in terms of experiential relationships rather than expository argumentation. They invite viewers to explore a particular space and develop a sense of co-presence with its inhabitants, resulting in a sense of ecological connection within a shared ecosystem rather than identification with, or mastery of, the subjects in the film. The films highlighted in this chapter are considered within the context of contemporary debates about the “school crisis” in France, and viewer responses to two of the films are studied in detail.
Stève Puig
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781786941138
- eISBN:
- 9781789629255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941138.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
An essential element of urban culture is rap, which has grown progressively in importance to and for post-migratory postcolonial minorities since the mid-1980s. One interesting development in the ...
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An essential element of urban culture is rap, which has grown progressively in importance to and for post-migratory postcolonial minorities since the mid-1980s. One interesting development in the last decade is the emergence of a group of rapper-writers, including Abd Al Malik or Disiz, who use various platforms to offer a counter-narrative to dominant discourse on the banlieues. Both artists, who draw on similar influences, move across and fuse genres to redefine Frenchness in the 21st century and to imagine what it is to be an artist in the instance of what Marie-Claude Smouts has called ‘the postcolonial situation’.Less
An essential element of urban culture is rap, which has grown progressively in importance to and for post-migratory postcolonial minorities since the mid-1980s. One interesting development in the last decade is the emergence of a group of rapper-writers, including Abd Al Malik or Disiz, who use various platforms to offer a counter-narrative to dominant discourse on the banlieues. Both artists, who draw on similar influences, move across and fuse genres to redefine Frenchness in the 21st century and to imagine what it is to be an artist in the instance of what Marie-Claude Smouts has called ‘the postcolonial situation’.
Mehammed Amadeus Mack
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823274604
- eISBN:
- 9780823274659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823274604.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines the various ways journalists and activists who purport to fight for sexual diversity have actually reified sexual conformism through two processes: the demonization of the ...
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This chapter examines the various ways journalists and activists who purport to fight for sexual diversity have actually reified sexual conformism through two processes: the demonization of the banlieue’s racialized, non-normative sexualities and the willful denial of the banlieue’s queer potential. In journalism, investigative reports, and interventions on the ground, commentators purporting to represent gay and feminist interests have focused on an uncommonly sexist banlieusard virility, with alleged roots in Islamic cultures. This process fits into a larger, more familiar one, in which immigration from the former colonies has been sexualized, with concerns articulated around men’s machismo and women’s subjugation. In recent years, respect for sexual minorities has constituted a new frontier for campaigns targeting banlieue attitudes and behaviors. In this vein, some campaigns purporting to “defend” have taken the form of attacks. Rhetoric about “saving” banlieue women and homosexuals has exoticized the banlieues as inhospitable and lawless zones worthy of human rights intervention. At the same time that it defines the homosexual victim, this rhetoric also determines the “appropriate” expression of homosexual identity or practices.Less
This chapter examines the various ways journalists and activists who purport to fight for sexual diversity have actually reified sexual conformism through two processes: the demonization of the banlieue’s racialized, non-normative sexualities and the willful denial of the banlieue’s queer potential. In journalism, investigative reports, and interventions on the ground, commentators purporting to represent gay and feminist interests have focused on an uncommonly sexist banlieusard virility, with alleged roots in Islamic cultures. This process fits into a larger, more familiar one, in which immigration from the former colonies has been sexualized, with concerns articulated around men’s machismo and women’s subjugation. In recent years, respect for sexual minorities has constituted a new frontier for campaigns targeting banlieue attitudes and behaviors. In this vein, some campaigns purporting to “defend” have taken the form of attacks. Rhetoric about “saving” banlieue women and homosexuals has exoticized the banlieues as inhospitable and lawless zones worthy of human rights intervention. At the same time that it defines the homosexual victim, this rhetoric also determines the “appropriate” expression of homosexual identity or practices.
Felicia McCarren
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199939954
- eISBN:
- 9780199347353
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199939954.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Dance, Ethnomusicology, World Music
For more than two decades, le hip hop has shown France’s “other” face: danced by minorities associated with immigration and the suburbs, it has channeled rage against racism and unequal opportunity ...
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For more than two decades, le hip hop has shown France’s “other” face: danced by minorities associated with immigration and the suburbs, it has channeled rage against racism and unequal opportunity and offered a movement vocabulary for the expression of the multicultural difference that challenges the universalist discourse of the Republic. French hip-hoppers subscribe to black U.S. culture to articulate their own difference but their mouv’ developed differently, championed by a Socialist cultural policy as part of the patrimoine culturel, instituted as a pedagogy and supported as an art of the banlieue. In the multicultural mix of “Arabic” North African, African and Asian forms circulating with classical and contemporary dance performance in France, if hip hop is positioned as a civic discourse, and hip hop dancer as legitimate employment, it is because beyond this political recuperation, it is a figural language in which dancers express themselves differently, figure themselves as something or someone else. French hip hop develops into concert dance not through the familiar model of a culture industry, but within a Republic of Culture; it nuances an “Anglo-Saxon” model of identity politics with a “francophone” post-colonial identity poetics and grants its dancers the statut civil of artists, technicians who develop and transmit body-based knowledge. This book-- the first in English to introduce readers to the French mouv’ --analyzes the choreographic development of hip hop into la danse urbaine, touring on national and international stages, as hip hoppeurs move beyond the banlieue, figuring new forms within the mobility brought by new media and global migration.Less
For more than two decades, le hip hop has shown France’s “other” face: danced by minorities associated with immigration and the suburbs, it has channeled rage against racism and unequal opportunity and offered a movement vocabulary for the expression of the multicultural difference that challenges the universalist discourse of the Republic. French hip-hoppers subscribe to black U.S. culture to articulate their own difference but their mouv’ developed differently, championed by a Socialist cultural policy as part of the patrimoine culturel, instituted as a pedagogy and supported as an art of the banlieue. In the multicultural mix of “Arabic” North African, African and Asian forms circulating with classical and contemporary dance performance in France, if hip hop is positioned as a civic discourse, and hip hop dancer as legitimate employment, it is because beyond this political recuperation, it is a figural language in which dancers express themselves differently, figure themselves as something or someone else. French hip hop develops into concert dance not through the familiar model of a culture industry, but within a Republic of Culture; it nuances an “Anglo-Saxon” model of identity politics with a “francophone” post-colonial identity poetics and grants its dancers the statut civil of artists, technicians who develop and transmit body-based knowledge. This book-- the first in English to introduce readers to the French mouv’ --analyzes the choreographic development of hip hop into la danse urbaine, touring on national and international stages, as hip hoppeurs move beyond the banlieue, figuring new forms within the mobility brought by new media and global migration.
Jimia Boutouba
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780719099489
- eISBN:
- 9781526135902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099489.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter demonstrates how Moroccan-Belgian filmmaker Nabil Ben Yadir’s La Marche presents the 1983 March for Equality and against Racism as a political praxis and a metaphor for homecoming. As a ...
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This chapter demonstrates how Moroccan-Belgian filmmaker Nabil Ben Yadir’s La Marche presents the 1983 March for Equality and against Racism as a political praxis and a metaphor for homecoming. As a group, the march connotes desired community and emotional togetherness. It promotes anchoring visions of solidarity and connectedness across gender, class, racial and sexual divides. As a metaphor, the marching group becomes a political mode of existence. In La Marche, Ben Yadir thus offers an oppositional gaze to dominant politics and a substantial project, in the shape of a narrative of mobility that moves away from allocated places and the suppressed speech of the ‘unaccounted for’ to formulated politics and discourse.Less
This chapter demonstrates how Moroccan-Belgian filmmaker Nabil Ben Yadir’s La Marche presents the 1983 March for Equality and against Racism as a political praxis and a metaphor for homecoming. As a group, the march connotes desired community and emotional togetherness. It promotes anchoring visions of solidarity and connectedness across gender, class, racial and sexual divides. As a metaphor, the marching group becomes a political mode of existence. In La Marche, Ben Yadir thus offers an oppositional gaze to dominant politics and a substantial project, in the shape of a narrative of mobility that moves away from allocated places and the suppressed speech of the ‘unaccounted for’ to formulated politics and discourse.
Fazia Aïtel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813049397
- eISBN:
- 9780813050164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049397.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter is concerned with two major social and cultural events that took place only three years apart in France and Algeria: the Berber Spring (Algeria, 1980) and the Beur March (France, 1983). ...
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This chapter is concerned with two major social and cultural events that took place only three years apart in France and Algeria: the Berber Spring (Algeria, 1980) and the Beur March (France, 1983). Though the Berber Spring took place in Algeria, some of the political groundwork that led to this uprising was carried out in France where in the late 1960s and 1970s a group of Berbers in the French banlieue organized what we might call consciousness-raising events to develop Berber awareness among their compatriots. Three years after the Berber spring, the younger generation of Berbers, French-born, participated in the Beur March, along with other descendants of North African immigrants and other segments of the French population. This chapter compares both events focusing on the Berber presence and contribution that links them, with special attention here to Beur literature and Berber music.Less
This chapter is concerned with two major social and cultural events that took place only three years apart in France and Algeria: the Berber Spring (Algeria, 1980) and the Beur March (France, 1983). Though the Berber Spring took place in Algeria, some of the political groundwork that led to this uprising was carried out in France where in the late 1960s and 1970s a group of Berbers in the French banlieue organized what we might call consciousness-raising events to develop Berber awareness among their compatriots. Three years after the Berber spring, the younger generation of Berbers, French-born, participated in the Beur March, along with other descendants of North African immigrants and other segments of the French population. This chapter compares both events focusing on the Berber presence and contribution that links them, with special attention here to Beur literature and Berber music.
Joseph McGonagle
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719079559
- eISBN:
- 9781526121103
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079559.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter builds on existing studies of how Algerian heritage has been represented across cinema by considering a range of case studies taken from different media, including visual arts, a TV film ...
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This chapter builds on existing studies of how Algerian heritage has been represented across cinema by considering a range of case studies taken from different media, including visual arts, a TV film franchise by the director Yamina Benguigui and autobiographical trilogy by the author Leïla Sebbar. It pays particular attention to how gender and ethnicity interact in this area by focusing on works that have probed the role of women among Algerian diasporas and people of Algerian heritage more generally. As such it additionally aims to counteract the implicit focus on men and masculinity that has characterised many cinematic representations of people of Algerian heritage.Less
This chapter builds on existing studies of how Algerian heritage has been represented across cinema by considering a range of case studies taken from different media, including visual arts, a TV film franchise by the director Yamina Benguigui and autobiographical trilogy by the author Leïla Sebbar. It pays particular attention to how gender and ethnicity interact in this area by focusing on works that have probed the role of women among Algerian diasporas and people of Algerian heritage more generally. As such it additionally aims to counteract the implicit focus on men and masculinity that has characterised many cinematic representations of people of Algerian heritage.
Edward Welch and Joseph McGonagle
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846318849
- eISBN:
- 9781846317958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846318849.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines how the national spaces of France and Algeria are depicted in contemporary portrayals of the two countries. Noting the recurrence of topoi such as the ferry port, the port city, ...
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This chapter examines how the national spaces of France and Algeria are depicted in contemporary portrayals of the two countries. Noting the recurrence of topoi such as the ferry port, the port city, the deprived urban suburb and the ancestral village, it considers how the representation of these and other spaces structure perceptions of each country and the relationship between them. It also adopts a historical perspective by exploring how these tropes and settings resonate or break with visual representations of colonial Algeria. Material analysed includes films by Algerian émigré director Merzak Allouache (Salut cousin!), and Franco-Algerian directors such as Rabah Ameur-Zaïmèche (Bled Number One) and Djamel Bensalah (Il était une fois dans l’Oued).Less
This chapter examines how the national spaces of France and Algeria are depicted in contemporary portrayals of the two countries. Noting the recurrence of topoi such as the ferry port, the port city, the deprived urban suburb and the ancestral village, it considers how the representation of these and other spaces structure perceptions of each country and the relationship between them. It also adopts a historical perspective by exploring how these tropes and settings resonate or break with visual representations of colonial Algeria. Material analysed includes films by Algerian émigré director Merzak Allouache (Salut cousin!), and Franco-Algerian directors such as Rabah Ameur-Zaïmèche (Bled Number One) and Djamel Bensalah (Il était une fois dans l’Oued).
Michelle Stewart
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474414982
- eISBN:
- 9781474444736
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474414982.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter considers the complexity of encouraging diversity through film policy through close analyses of the best-known films supported by the program, with particular attention to successful ...
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This chapter considers the complexity of encouraging diversity through film policy through close analyses of the best-known films supported by the program, with particular attention to successful films by French Maghrebi and other minority directors. These films will be discussed in the fuller context of their box office success and critical reception, and minority filmmaking more generally. Finally, these films will be analysed within the range of works supported by the Images de la diversité fund to assess the extent to which national agencies can promote diversity through a multicultural politics of representation. In short, this chapter asks whether, in a country known for its national cinema, a carefully constructed film policy can intervene in an ongoing cultural debate about the changing character of the nation. By considering films that incorporate a cross-Mediterranean gaze, the chapter also considers how themes of migration and immigration are treated in France and in the Maghreb.Less
This chapter considers the complexity of encouraging diversity through film policy through close analyses of the best-known films supported by the program, with particular attention to successful films by French Maghrebi and other minority directors. These films will be discussed in the fuller context of their box office success and critical reception, and minority filmmaking more generally. Finally, these films will be analysed within the range of works supported by the Images de la diversité fund to assess the extent to which national agencies can promote diversity through a multicultural politics of representation. In short, this chapter asks whether, in a country known for its national cinema, a carefully constructed film policy can intervene in an ongoing cultural debate about the changing character of the nation. By considering films that incorporate a cross-Mediterranean gaze, the chapter also considers how themes of migration and immigration are treated in France and in the Maghreb.
Christopher L. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226590950
- eISBN:
- 9780226591148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226591148.003.0020
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Plon publishers raised doubts about the authenticity of this novel from the beginning, as if doubt itself were a selling point. Lila dit ça (Lila Says) was written by an author identified only as ...
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Plon publishers raised doubts about the authenticity of this novel from the beginning, as if doubt itself were a selling point. Lila dit ça (Lila Says) was written by an author identified only as Chimo, whose real identity remains unknown. The novel represents life in the economically stressed banlieue of Paris and therefore purports to speak for the voiceless. It is largely concerned with sex. The novel earned huge sums of money and helped established the atmosphere in which the Paul Smaïl hoax, examined in part three, took place.Less
Plon publishers raised doubts about the authenticity of this novel from the beginning, as if doubt itself were a selling point. Lila dit ça (Lila Says) was written by an author identified only as Chimo, whose real identity remains unknown. The novel represents life in the economically stressed banlieue of Paris and therefore purports to speak for the voiceless. It is largely concerned with sex. The novel earned huge sums of money and helped established the atmosphere in which the Paul Smaïl hoax, examined in part three, took place.
Debarati Sanyal
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823265473
- eISBN:
- 9780823266722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823265473.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The chapter addresses Assia Djebar’s Les nuits de Strasbourg (1997) and Boualem Sansal’s Le village de l’Allemand (2008), situating them within French debates on national identity and memorial ...
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The chapter addresses Assia Djebar’s Les nuits de Strasbourg (1997) and Boualem Sansal’s Le village de l’Allemand (2008), situating them within French debates on national identity and memorial recognition but also within a transnational reflection on terror. Both novels view the city as a palimpsest whose layering speaks to France’s entangled histories. Djebar evokes these histories through the entwined bodies and memories of Strasbourg, a city that becomes the figure for a transnational Europe. Yet even this idealized creolization, métissage, of memory and identity remains haunted by the remnants of unprocessed colonial violence. Sansal’s novel weaves together the Holocaust, the Algerian Civil War, and global circuits of terrorism, leading to polemical analogies between the concentration camps and the French banlieue, or between Nazism and fundamentalist Islam. This tapestry and its exclusions teach us about the strategic choices available for engaging with a politics of Holocaust remembrance.Less
The chapter addresses Assia Djebar’s Les nuits de Strasbourg (1997) and Boualem Sansal’s Le village de l’Allemand (2008), situating them within French debates on national identity and memorial recognition but also within a transnational reflection on terror. Both novels view the city as a palimpsest whose layering speaks to France’s entangled histories. Djebar evokes these histories through the entwined bodies and memories of Strasbourg, a city that becomes the figure for a transnational Europe. Yet even this idealized creolization, métissage, of memory and identity remains haunted by the remnants of unprocessed colonial violence. Sansal’s novel weaves together the Holocaust, the Algerian Civil War, and global circuits of terrorism, leading to polemical analogies between the concentration camps and the French banlieue, or between Nazism and fundamentalist Islam. This tapestry and its exclusions teach us about the strategic choices available for engaging with a politics of Holocaust remembrance.
Kathryn A. Kleppinger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781381960
- eISBN:
- 9781786945204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381960.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Presenting a broad overview of the historical and literary context in which the descendants of North African immigrants to France began to write novels, this introductory chapter establishes the ...
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Presenting a broad overview of the historical and literary context in which the descendants of North African immigrants to France began to write novels, this introductory chapter establishes the primary questions and stakes of the book. It provides readers with necessary contextual information such as the French presence in Algeria as well as government policies regarding audio-visual broadcasting. It also presents several related scholarly studies in the field and argues that this book presents new perspectives on a well-studied population by considering the role of the audio-visual media in creating a commonly shared idea of what types of novels these authors write. Theories by Stuart Hall (dominant, negotiated, and contestatory frameworks), Édouard Glissant (opacity), and Pierre Bourdieu (literary field) are used to place these authors in a broader context. The chapter concludes by arguing that scholarly studies of this literature, like other texts labelled as ‘Francophone’ or ‘Postcolonial,’ has been pre-determined by which texts have been promoted in the media and thus supported by publishers.Less
Presenting a broad overview of the historical and literary context in which the descendants of North African immigrants to France began to write novels, this introductory chapter establishes the primary questions and stakes of the book. It provides readers with necessary contextual information such as the French presence in Algeria as well as government policies regarding audio-visual broadcasting. It also presents several related scholarly studies in the field and argues that this book presents new perspectives on a well-studied population by considering the role of the audio-visual media in creating a commonly shared idea of what types of novels these authors write. Theories by Stuart Hall (dominant, negotiated, and contestatory frameworks), Édouard Glissant (opacity), and Pierre Bourdieu (literary field) are used to place these authors in a broader context. The chapter concludes by arguing that scholarly studies of this literature, like other texts labelled as ‘Francophone’ or ‘Postcolonial,’ has been pre-determined by which texts have been promoted in the media and thus supported by publishers.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846310522
- eISBN:
- 9781846316128
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846310522.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter focuses on an agitprop use of photography in photo-essayism: Philippe Tagli's photo-poetry. Tagli's photo-poetry tightly links images and texts. The chapter looks at the photo-album and ...
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This chapter focuses on an agitprop use of photography in photo-essayism: Philippe Tagli's photo-poetry. Tagli's photo-poetry tightly links images and texts. The chapter looks at the photo-album and how it deploys an array of techniques to avoid becoming a ‘coffee-table book’. Tagli's Paradis sans espoir is a set of poems that accompany photographs of the Parisian banlieue – a growing theme in photo-texts – and is the follow-up to Les Gremlins de la cité d'Oz. Using personal photographs in combination with corrosive poetic musings, Tagli showcases a highly original agitprop account of life in the drab suburbs around Paris. The chapter also analyses social exclusion and its poetic countering, along with the medium through which this artistic protest arises.Less
This chapter focuses on an agitprop use of photography in photo-essayism: Philippe Tagli's photo-poetry. Tagli's photo-poetry tightly links images and texts. The chapter looks at the photo-album and how it deploys an array of techniques to avoid becoming a ‘coffee-table book’. Tagli's Paradis sans espoir is a set of poems that accompany photographs of the Parisian banlieue – a growing theme in photo-texts – and is the follow-up to Les Gremlins de la cité d'Oz. Using personal photographs in combination with corrosive poetic musings, Tagli showcases a highly original agitprop account of life in the drab suburbs around Paris. The chapter also analyses social exclusion and its poetic countering, along with the medium through which this artistic protest arises.
Mario Polèse
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190053710
- eISBN:
- 9780190053741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190053710.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Paris is one of the world’s truly great cities. Yet, this great metropolis punches below its weight. Although it is continental Europe’s largest city, it is not the continent’s financial or corporate ...
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Paris is one of the world’s truly great cities. Yet, this great metropolis punches below its weight. Although it is continental Europe’s largest city, it is not the continent’s financial or corporate center; nor is it a leader in today’s digital economy. This chapter examines the reasons behind Paris’s apparent weakness as a global economic player. Five reasons are explored: (1) the decline of the French language and French culture on the world stage; (2) France’s highly centralized tradition of governance and rigid labor market; (3) the political fragmentation of metropolitan Paris, still in search of an appropriate model of regional governance; (4) Paris’s social divides, manifested most cruelly in the impoverished cités of its suburbs; (5) the French state’s policies toward central Paris, which have tended to favor cultural monuments over economic and research functions.Less
Paris is one of the world’s truly great cities. Yet, this great metropolis punches below its weight. Although it is continental Europe’s largest city, it is not the continent’s financial or corporate center; nor is it a leader in today’s digital economy. This chapter examines the reasons behind Paris’s apparent weakness as a global economic player. Five reasons are explored: (1) the decline of the French language and French culture on the world stage; (2) France’s highly centralized tradition of governance and rigid labor market; (3) the political fragmentation of metropolitan Paris, still in search of an appropriate model of regional governance; (4) Paris’s social divides, manifested most cruelly in the impoverished cités of its suburbs; (5) the French state’s policies toward central Paris, which have tended to favor cultural monuments over economic and research functions.
