Transnational French Studies

Transnational French Studies:Postcolonialism and Utterature-monde. Alec G.Hargreaves etal., ed.Liverpool. Liverpool University Press(University ofChicago Press, distr.). 2010. vii+ 307 pages.$95.isbn 978-1-84631-483-4 The contributors to Transnational French Studies - eighteen university professors, mostofthemin French studies - examine the manifesto "Pour une 'litt£rature-monde' en frangais" (seeWLT, March2009, 54) and findmoretobe criticized than tobeadmired. Themanifesto callsfor anopeningofliterature inFrench toa wider world.Itattacks theinward-looking tendencies and the concernwith structure rather thanlarger themes thatitfinds in muchrecent French fiction. It also callsforthedeathof "francophone" as a separate literary category, whichhas toooften been considered inferior to writing from hexagonal France (andisevena tautology , sinceall speakers ofFrench arefrancophone). Itpraises thewider acceptance ofpostcolonial literature intheEnglish-speaking world. Themanifesto isinparta rejectionoftheFrench politics ofFrancophonie - an institutional structure ofcountries where French isspoken, which isseenas a legacy ofcolonialism .It also attackstheneglectof manywriters by theFrenchliterary establishment. (A recentarticle on thehistory oftheGallimard publishing firm, forhe Mondedes Livres - March n, 2011,afterthe publication ofthis volume - lists the variouscollections Gallimard publishes , butdoesnotmention thecollection "Continents Noirs," devoted to writers from theCaribbean and Africa. Thiscollection haspublished overseventy bookssince2000, butis often considered a ghetto.) Whilepraising thereevaluation ofwriters from outside France, most essays here find the manifesto lacking innuance; litt£rature-monde has"displacedthecentre to theperiphery," replacing old hierarchies withnew ones.Themanifesto begins bymentioning that fiveliterary prizeswere awardedin Paristo "foreign-born writers" in2006.Among them, however , isJonathan Littell, anAmerican whowrote LesBienveillantes inFrench, butwho,nomore than Samuel BeckettorEug &ne Ionesco, wouldbeconsidered francophone. Several contributors mention theirony ofattacking theidea ofa center ofliterature in Francewhilerelying on thiscenter as a judgeofthevalueofliterature. Jean-Xavier Ridonsuggests thatnot accepting literary prizeswouldhave moresignificantly "underlined these authors' independence withregard totheFrench literary establishment." Anothercriticalobservation concerns whatworkis now being revalued.Thosesignatories of the manifesto who were not bornin France(twenty-four oftwenty-seven ) are oftenmobilewriters, living and teachingpartlyin other European countries orintheUnited States.Authorsfromthe Parisian suburbs (banlieue writers), and particularly beurs (ofNorth African origin ) are not considered. Michelle Keown observesthatindigenous francophone Pacificliterature cannot be incorporated into "littgrature -monde." Although literatures inEnglish have been morewidelyaccepted thanthosein French, thesecritical essaysraisequestions ofinterest to students ofanglophone postcolonial literature as well. Adele King Paris

Art · Art history · French · Humanities · Literature · Manifesto · Political science · Politics · Publishing · Sociology · Classics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Political and Social Issues