Fictions of Race in Contemporary French Literature

Download or read book Fictions of Race in Contemporary French Literature written by ?tienne Achille and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-16 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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, ?douard Louis, and Nicolas Mathieu. Achille and Pana?t? 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.