French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons^™

Mères Migrantes Et Fi Lles De La République : Identité Et Féminité Dans Le Roman De Banlieue, Mame-Fatou Niang

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article examines the writings of female authors from the French suburbs, whose novels feature female protagonists born in immigrant families and engaged in a quest to redefine self. The novels explore the generational differences between these characters and the impact of the quest for self on mother-daughter relations. Their analysis brings light to the authors’ attempt at conjuring the stereotypes generally attached to the banlieue and to immigrant women. I argue that through the evocation of non-hegemonic visions, these novels present the banlieues as dynamic spaces allowing for a new discursive practice of identity and citizenship.

Entre Expatriation Et Apatridie : Les Romans De Gaston-Paul Effa Et Henri Lopes, Yves Abel Feze

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The stories of exile and return from exile of novelists Gaston-Paul Effa and Henri Lopes give themselves to read on how to register a double “desappartenance” and focuses in the heart of their narratives the figure of a now be stateless, alien to itself and to the Other. We propose, therefore, to study the reconstruction of identity as it is the result of emigration and return on the homeland. This leads thus to the conclusion that the stateless defies the nation in order to situate itself and his stories in a transnational space.

Entre France Et Vietnam : Linda Lê Et La Problématique Mémorielle, Hervé Tchumkam

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Building on Paul Ricoeur’s work on memory and forgetting, this article analyzes exile and identity in Linda Lê’s Calomnies, a novel that narrates the peregrinations of a young girl exiled from her native Vietnam because of French war but nevertheless living in France. Building on the contention that identity is somewhat problematic in exile, I argue that while the narrator’s resort to her relatives in order to remember her past, her struggle to battle oblivion often takes shape against the backdrop of collective memory. More specifically, I investigate Calomnies to show that the narrative of exile and the subsequent quest …

Langue Et Identité Chez Leïla Sebbar. Vers Une Filiation Renégociée, Cécilia W. Francis

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père (2003), L’arabe comme un chant secret (2010a), as well as in other components of her intimate prose, Leïla Sebbar reflects on her sense of dispossessed identity due to linguistic exile and an unknown heritage, resulting from ruptures in her paternal filiation. Drawing from the works of Jacques Derrida, Régine Robin and Simon Harel, which form the basis of our argumentation, we examine various dimensions of the severed parental bond. The article proposes to examine how Sebbar’s autobiographical writings, which incorporate scenarios dealing with legacy transmission expressed in terms of auditory …

L’Aventure Ambiguë De Hamidou Kane : Modernités En Abyme, Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The article seeks to revisit the interpretation of L’aventure ambiguë by proposing a reading that goes well beyond a simple binarism opposing tradition and modernity. The analysis emphasizes the philosophical dimension of the novel in order to show that African modernity is at the same time representation and critique of the Western modernity inscribed in abyme within the novel. Such approach allows the work to escape the prison house of contingency and to remain open and meaningful in different times and spaces.

The French Community At Uri: A Study Of Cultural And Linguistic Identity, Kayla L. Butts

Senior Honors Projects

The French Community at URI: A Study of Cultural and Linguistic Identity

Kayla Butts

Sponsor: Karen DeBruin, French

Growing up in a bi-racial family has always brought upon me the question of identity. To which culture do I belong and which values do I adopt? To make matters even more complex, I have fallen in love with the French culture and language and have chosen to major in it. Am I allowed to feel a part of this culture as well?

Whether it is part of ones ethnic background or not, human beings question if it is possible to truly …

Le Nègre Blanc De Bel Air: La Construction D'Une Identité Hybride Réunionnaise, Jessica Bombard

LSU Master's Theses

Reunion Island and its literature both reflect a unique world of métissage unveiling a hybrid culture and population. Through centuries, Reunionese authors have used their writings as a means to portray the reality of their complex métisse society. Uninhabited until the seventeenth century, Reunion became a focal point for many nations and peoples who brought their own cultures and traditions. Such diversity, linked to the economic needs of the colony, led to the creation of a new creole language along with a new culture. In the novel Le Nègre Blanc de Bel Air, the Reunionese author Jean-François Samlong focuses on …

La Place Et Le Rôle De La Mère Dans La Construction Identitaire De Ken Dans Le Baobab Fou De Ken Bugul, Natacha Jeudy

LSU Master's Theses

At a time when francophone women writers are hardly published, the Senegalese author Ken Bugul becomes the talk of the town with her 1982 novel Le baobab fou. At that point, not only is she becoming a francophone literary precursor to other francophone writers, she also imposes a style which explores and contradicts traditional views. Indeed from the beginning of the story in rural Senegal where the mother is traditionally defined and held responsible for educating her children so that the tradition can endure, Ken has to face her mother’s disappearance when she is just a child. The lack of …

Literary Expressions Of Creole Identity In Alfred Mercier's L'Habitation Saint-Ybars And Johnelle, Mary Florence Cashell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines nineteenth-century Louisianan author Alfred Mercier’s novels and their roles as emblems of Francophone Creole cultural identity. During the nineteenth century following the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent anglophone influx, the French-speaking Creole population faced a cultural upheaval. Unable to completely identify as either French or American, Creoles occupied an uncertain space. This study demonstrates that Alfred Mercier’s works articulate a hybrid identity that is neither French nor American but rather a multicultural construct. The first chapter examines the nineteenth-century Creole community’s problematic positioning between French and American cultures. Chapters two, three, and four center on two of Mercier’s …

Hédi Bouraoui Et Les Limites De La Théorie Postcoloniale : Approche Transpoétique Et Nomadique, Éric Touya De Marenne

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

A priori, Hedi Bouraoui’s thought lies within the scope of a postcolonial perspective. However, the concept of “transpoétique” to which he alludes is based on the notion of “nomaditude” which asserts the blurring of cultural and identity borders. That is why beyond the “infernal binary” thought that he rejects (ruler / dominated, colonizer / colonized), the Tunisian and Canadian author puts in question the postcolonial approach. In this context, the aim of this study is to understand better how trans-poetics can allow us to conceive differently the theoretical foundations of francophone literary criticism.

Parades Banlieusardes. El Hadj De Mamadou Mahmoud N’Dongo Et Les Identités Criminelles, Hervé Tchumkam

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article aims at understanding the relation between crime and identity formations in the French banlieues, especially in the wake of the 2005 urban riots. The essay performs a reading Mamadou N’Dongo’s novel El Hadj at the intersection of aesthetics and politics in order to scrutinize identity formations and related debates at stake in the prisons of poverty and oppression that constitute the banlieues whose inhabitants are the third or fourth generation of the heirs to African immigration in France. Ultimately, the paper contention is that what I call “banlieue parade” stands out as the new model of identity that …

Les Fondements Littéraires De La Réception D’Aimé Césaire Au Bénin, Guy Ossito Midiohouan

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Aime Cesaire is a popular writer in Benin. Evidence lies in the increasing number of writers and scholars who have been supporting his ideas since the 60s. His books are on secondary school as well as university curricula. He has enjoyed more attention in the 1990s with the advent of democracy and the notable influence of then Head of State N. D. Soglo who is a keen admirer of his political career. Cesaire is held in such an esteem in Benin because he is capable of going beyond his natal Caribbean and willingly express the sad destiny of Africa ever …

La Poésie Hors-Normes De Mohamed Hmoudane Ou L’Art De La Provocation, Yamna Abdelkader

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Poetry is often understood as a series of deviations from linguistic norms, but Mohamed Hmoudane’s collections appear to be a systematic subversive strategy against both aesthetic conventions and prevailing assumptions about Eastern and Western identitarian categories. Published between 2003 and 2005, the works entitled Attentat, incandescence and Blanche mécanique avert poetic clichés as they invert cultural stereotypes, taking a most satirical stance toward the state of the world at the dawn of a new millenium. The pervasive sense of detachment resulting from Hmoudane’s satirical tendencies is associated with a poetics of excess, and this paradoxical union serves as a powerful …

Understanding Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers' Identity Construction And Transformation In The English-Speaking Community: A Closer Look At Past, Present, And Future, Shu-Chun Tseng

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Building on Kachru‟s (2005) diagram of World Englishes and Norton‟s (2000) theoretical conception of identity, the researcher acknowledges that each Non-Native English Speaking Teacher (NNEST) comes to the English-speaking community with a different variety of Englishes. Each believes in various cultural values and norms, and his or her identity is an ongoing process that can be impacted when he or she is immersed in different contexts. Using a qualitative approach, this study examined the way NNESTs construct their self-perceptions of English Language Teaching (ELT) professionalism based on social and educational experiences in their countries. In addition, the study examined how …

Self-Discrepancies, Symbolic Self-Completion, And The Role Of Possessions In The Transition From High School To College, Ashlee Lochbaum

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to explore some of the ways that possessions may be used symbolically to aid adjustment in first-semester freshmen who are transitioning to college. Based on prior literature, the transition to college is often accompanied by self-discrepancies which may be alleviated through symbolic self-completion using possessions. Overall, 219 students participated in this study. Results indicate that first-semester freshmen, as well as upperclassmen students, rely on the symbolic use of possessions in both managing negative affect and symbolizing the ideal college student identity. Furthermore, managing affect through the use of feeling regulators was found to …

Text As Resistance In Holocaust Literature: Struggles For Personhood In Wiesel, Levi, And Delbo, Gillian M. Mozer

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is an examination of the memoirs of three core Holocaust writers, Elie Wiesel (Night and Day), Primo Levi (If This is A Man), and Charlotte Delbo (Auschwitz and After), exploring the ways in which each of the three authors uses his or her memoir to simultaneously document and resist the dehumanizing influence of the concentration camp experience.

L’Écriture De La Perte Chez Assia Djebar, Lila Kermas

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This study proposes a reflexion on the feeling of “loss” as a source of literary creation. The different tensions generated by an hybrid identity of a character in a quest, especially in La disparition de la langue française (“disappearance of the French language”) by Assia Djebar ; what matters here is to see how the feeling of crisis and the split reveals itself and how it dissolves in and through (the process of) writing.

Fantasme Et Sexualité Dans Les Littératures Caribéennes Francophones: Des Dangers Du Stéréotype Aux Transformations Mythiques, Sébastien Sacré

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Francophone Caribbean literature has consistently challenged stereotypes and clichés usually associated to these islands by strongly opposing the colonial representation of the first writers, especially those of the “doudouisme”. However, the current sexualisation of contemporary literature might lead to think that it has also reignited former exotic colonial representations like those of the Caribbean woman as an object of pleasure, or the unfaithful polygamist Caribbean man. Recent publications from Maryse Condé, Ernest Pépin or René Depestre indicate that, on the contrary, these authors go beyond these colonial representations to undertake a redefinition of cultural identity.

Idéal Romantique Et Projet Social Dans C’Est Vole Que Je Vole De Nicole Cage-Florentiny, Hanétha Vété-Congolo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In this novel, first published in 1998 and then in 2006, martinican female writer Nicole Cage-Florentiny portrays a young woman, Malaïka, who seeks refuge in madness to escape the turmoil of her life. She is under the yoke of harsh living conditions including societal conformism which, according to Fanon, provokes the « existential deviation » (1953 : 31) of the individual. Despite all, Malaïka advocates a society that would integrate all its members and promote equality. C’est vole que je vole aims at brushing Martinique’s ability to display a sound socialization. The author aims at offering a criticism of her …

Politique Culturelle : Tradition, Modernité Et Arts Contemporains Au Sénégal, 1960-2000, Kinsey Katchka

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This essay approaches contemporary arts in Senegal and their exhibition from the perspective of cultural policy. This is an especially salient approach in Senegal, where policy has played a significant role in exhibition and creative practice since the colonial period. This history is conventionally examined through a distinctly nationalist framework that reveals the government’s clear distinction between "tradition" and "modernity". State exhibition practice and rhetoric have reinforced this dichotomy, serving to position the Senegalese state as purveyor, definer, and arbiter of cultural heritage. However, diverse creative expressions throughout the capital city of Dakar call into question nationalist rhetoric’s rigid distinction …

Les Limites De L’Appartenance : Composition, Intertextualité Et Langue Dans Les Dents Du Topographe Et Méfiez-Vous Des Parachutistes De Fouad Laroui, Carla Calargé

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In this article, I examine two novels by Fouad Laroui, Les dents du topographe (1996) and Méfiez-vous des parachutistes (1999). I analyze the difficulties encountered by their narrators when they try to find and define non alienating cultural and geographical spaces to which they could belong. For that purpose, I study the composition of the two novels, the play of intertextuality as well as the language of the main characters.

Folie De L'Écriture, Écriture De La Folie Dans La Littératureféminine Des Antilles Françaises, Pascale De Souza

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

There are many female characters with sick/mutilated bodies in Guadeloupe and Martinique’s female literature. Madness, anorexia, self-mutilation, even the suicide of these female characters not only denounce a repressive social order inherited from the history of slavery, but also represent means to affect a social environment that is not responsive to the female quest for identity. Madness, crisis or acts of self-mutilation allow them to escape (“marronnage”) a system, which tries to negate their very existence.

Piero Chiara E La Tradizione, Stefano Giannini

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

Piero Chiara (Luino 1913- Varese 1986) wrote many novels and short stories that immediately met great public success. Critics devoted mixed attention to him but his works deserve a new critical assessment to analyze the rich and sophisticated web of cultural and literary references that permeate them. Through readings of Il piatto piange, “L’uovo al cianuro” and other novels and short stories, this paper analyses the complex textual relations Chiara entertains with Pirandello’s Il fu Mattia Pascal. Chiara investigates the themes of identity and the double. His narrative depicts an apparently lighthearted reality that in fact reveals despair. …

Écriture Et Identité Dans La Littérature D’Afrique Du Sud : Le Cas D’André Brink, Robert Mangoua

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

By engaging his works against apartheid, André Brink chose at the same time to face a double problem of identity: identity of his writing and his personal identity. To the first problem he responds by the relationship with the alter ego (borrowing from others) and to the second by his identification to Africa. His texts, luxuriant in “intertextual relations” but essentially oriented towards Europe, reveals a eurocentric reflex in him that revokes the problem of his personal identity.

Reticent Romans: Silence And Writing In La Vie De Saint Alexis, Le Conte Du Graal, And Le Roman De Silence, Evan J. Bibbee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Apart from discourse and yet somehow part of it, silence is a powerfully ambiguous linguistic phenomenon that blurs the lines between presence and absence. Eluding the material aspects of oral and written language, it is only perceptible as the gaps or spaces between words. Nonetheless, it plays a role in all linguistic productions: although silence itself cannot be directly communicated, it can influence communication. In a literary text, silence may takes on many different guises, including rhythmic hesitations, rhetorical omissions, and poetic oppositions that mimic the audible gaps of spoken language. The visual, aural, and fictional interaction of all these …

L'Incipit Dans L'Œuvre D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Sélom Komlan Gbanou

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The literary work can develop an internal identity as a particular mark. Several African writers incorporate into their novels indications of culture that derive from verbal arts. This method gives to the writing a particular aesthetic in between two cultures, creating in the writing an individuality of certain writers such as Ahmadou Kourouma. For him the question is not only to distort the French language to express his Malinke identity, but also to develop a method of incipit that belongs to verbal art.

La Poetique Du Paysage Dans L'Oeuvre D'Edouard Glissant, De Kateb Yacine Et De William Faulkner, Nabil Boudraa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the different ways in which Edouard Glissant, Kateb Yacine and William Faulkner combine landscape, history and identity in their work. The depiction of landscape in literature is not new, but the French Romantics in the 19th century, for instance, tended to describe the beauty of landscape without conceiving any rapport between landscape and humankind, and thus created a gap between the two. For Kateb and Glissant, landscape is also a witness of History. The (hi)story of their respective communities has been confiscated and shattered by the respective colonizers, hence the necessity to recreate it through the poetics …

Identité Créole Et Mémoire: Edwidge Danticat Et Fabienne Pasquet, Marie-Denise Shelton

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

En guise d'introduction, je ferai quelques remarques qui traduisent davantage un état d'âme personnel qu'une réalité objectivement repérable dans les deux textes que je me propose d'examiner aujourd'hui. De quoi s'agit-il? De l'identité des Haitiens de l'immigration, ceux que certains ont dénommé les <> contemporaine. Cette question est d'une grande pertinence surtout dans le discours actuel à l'intérieur et hors d'Haiti où il est de plus en plus question du rôle de la diaspora dans la reconstruction de la nation haitienne. L'idée me semble étrange mais elle possède un extraordinaire pouvoir de séduction. La diaspora est par défintion même chaotique, non-organique …

Condé: The Politics Of Gender And Identity, Marie-Denise Shelton

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Today, in the French-speaking Caribbean, in the domain of theory, a choice is presented among three terms: africanité, créolitém and antillanité. As with any option which presents itself in exclusive forms, this choice is embedded in the complex antagonisms of contemporary Caribbean politics.