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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Memory, Violence, and Genocide in Contemporary Francophone Literature A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies by Nanar Khamo 2018 © Copyright by Nanar Khamo 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Memory, Violence, and Genocide in Contemporary Francophone Literature by Nanar Khamo Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Françoise Lionnet, Chair My dissertation investigates questions of violence and alterity in texts by J. M. G. Le Clézio, Natacha Appanah, Ananda Devi, Khal Torabully, and Véronique Tadjo. By bringing together francophone postcolonial studies and genocide studies, I create new conversations that can foster a better look at transnational literature and history. I compare traditional historiography and contemporary fiction, and analyze literary techniques, such as voice, character, and perspective, to demonstrate how authors transcend boundaries to create collective memories of violent events. The first chapter compares and contrasts portrayals of genocide and historical violence in Le Clézio's Révolutions. I focus on the interweaving of past and present in the novel to argue that ultimately Le Clézio falls shorts of creating a genuinely multidirectional space, even as he does give voice to the historically marginalized. In the second chapter, I move to cases of “nongenocide” to allow for a broader discussion of violations of human rights in two ii of Appanah's novels: in Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or I focus is on gender issues and “coolies,” the indentured laborers bound for Mauritius, and in Le dernier frère, I discuss the little-known history of a group of Central European Jews who were kept in an old colonial “camp” in Mauritius during World War II. I analyze Appanah's treatment of such violent histories in conjunction with the concept of “nongenocide” (Meierheinrich 2011), and I conclude that Appanah creates multidirectional (Rothberg 2009) conversations about historiography and race to foreground traumas hidden from collective memory. The question of narrative point of view with regards to victimhood and representation drives my interrogation of the two texts that I study in the third chapter. Torabully’s Mes Afriques, mes ivoires and Tadjo’s L’ombre d’Imana, are responses to genocide in Rwanda that reveal the authors’ anxieties about the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire and its risks of descending into genocide. In all the chapters of this thesis, I examine how authors represent different forms of historical violence so as to answer a central question: what are the literary tools these authors mobilize in order to create empathy and community among different groups as well as between author and reader(s). iii The dissertation of Nanar Khamo is approved. Benjamin L. Madley Lia N. Brozgal Françoise Lionnet, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………….…………….. ii Acknowledgements………………………………….………………………………….…….. vi Vita………………………………….………………………….…………………….…….….. vii Introduction ………………………………….……………………………………………..… 1 Chapter One: Remembering the Historical Other in Le Clézio's Révolutions ……………..…30 Chapter Two: Historical violence and Multidirectional Memory in the Francophone Indian Ocean: Natacha Appanah's Le dernier frère and Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or………………. 77 Chapter Three: Transnational Memory and Identity in Tadjo’s L’ombre d’Imana and Torabully’s Mes Afriques, mes ivoires ……………………………………………...…………121 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….………….... 170 Bibliography………………………………………….….………………………………….... 174 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank UCLA’s Department of French and Francophone Studies for supporting me throughout the years, as well as the Royce Humanities Group and UCLA Graduate Division. I would also like to thank the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies and UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women for awarding me with conference travel grants to support my participation in international conferences. An archival trip to Mauritius fueled many aspects of this thesis, particularly through the fortuitous encounters that I had with professors, artists, and archivists. I would like to particularly thank Gilberte Marimootoo Natchoo for her good will, generosity, and unwavering kindness. My committee has been indispensible throughout the years. Françoise Lionnet has offered me infinite inspiration and support as a role model with her optimism and grace. She has taught me to train my eye on overlooked histories for which I will always be grateful. I would like to thank Lia Brozgal for her dedication, humor, and authenticity. It was working as her teaching assistant in a cinema course that I learned the fundamentals of repackaging complex ideas, as well as considering texts and media at several different angles. I would also like to thank Ben Madley for his exemplary mentorship and for helping me learn how to teach difficult subjects. Lastly, I would like to thank Sara Melzer for her devotion to her students and for helping me learn to ask the right questions and reframe my approach. A special thank you to Coralie de Mazancourt and Cristina Politano with whom I have begun this journey. I look forward to future collaborations with you both. I dedicate this thesis to my family and friends for their endless support and for grounding me throughout this thrilling adventure. vi VITA 2009 B.A., French University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 2011 M.A., French Tufts University Somerville, MA 2012-2014 Dean’s Scholar UCLA Los Angeles, CA 2013-2014 Teaching Assistant UCLA Los Angeles, CA 2014-2015 Teaching Associate UCLA Los Angeles, CA 2016 Candidate of Philosophy UCLA Los Angeles, CA 2016-2018 Teaching Fellow UCLA Los Angeles, CA PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS Khamo, Nanar. (January 2014). “‘C'est moi, moi seul’: The narrator's desire to be mother and writer in Le sari vert.” Le Monde en français/The World in French. Aarhus University, Denmark. ---. (October 2014). “Travel and touch: Exploring engagement in Gide's Voyage au Congo.” Touch. UCLA’s Department of French and Francophone Studies’ 19th Annual Graduate Student Conference. Los Angeles, California. ---. (October 2014). “Manipulation and Mauritius,” Newsletter for the Center for the Study of Women, UCLA. ----. (February 2015). “Genocide Represented in Literature: Bridging Alterity in Tadjo’s The vii Shadow of Imana.” Taking Stock: When Literature Produces Knowledge. 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies Annual Conference. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. ----. (March 2016). “Memory and Imagination: The Migratory and Rhizomatic World of Le Clézio's Révolutions.” Passages, seuils, portes. 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies Annual Conference. St. Louis, Missouri. ---. (November 2016). “Memory and violence in Appanah's Le dernier frère and Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or.” Archives, Libraries, Properties. Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Annual Conference. Pasadena, California. ---. (November 2016). “Violence and Multidirectional Memory in the Francophone Indian Ocean: Natacha Appanah's Le dernier frère and Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or.” Francophone Postcolonial Studies in the 21st Century. Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference. London, United Kingdom. ---. (February 2017). “Genocide, Slavery, and Violence: Imagining Reparations in the Francophone Indian Ocean, 1715-1835.” Imagining Reparations. UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women 27th Annual Thinking Gender Graduate Student Conference. Los Angeles, California. ---. (October 2017). “Genocide, Slavery, and Violence: Imagining Reparations in the Francophone Indian Ocean, 1715-1835.” eScholarship, Center for the Study of Women, UCLA. ---. (November 2017). “Identity, History, and Narrative in Le Clézio’s Révolutions.” Regional, National and Global Identities in the Francophone World. Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference. London, United Kingdom Khamo, Nanar and Cristina Politano. “Introduction.” Paroles Gelées, Volume 31 (2018): 1-2. Khamo, Nanar. (June 2018).“A City that is not a City: An Interview with Laure Murat.” Paroles Gelées, Volume 31 (2018): 41-46. ---. (June 0218).Review of Toussaint Louverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions by Charles Forsdick and Christian Høgsbjerg. Paroles Gelées, Volume 31(2018): 50-52. ---. (2019). “The Holocaust, Memory, and Race in Natacha Appanah’s Le dernier frère” Forthcoming article in a special Issue of French Forum, “The Holocaust in French Literature, 1997-2017.” ---. (2019). Poétiques de la violence et récits contemporains francophones, by Emmanuel Bruno Jean-François. Forthcoming book review in The French Review, Volume 92.1. ---. (2019). Review of Probing the Ethics of Holocaust Culture by Claudio Fogu, Claudio Kansteiner, and Todd Presner. Forthcoming book review in Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal. viii INTRODUCTION HISTORY, LITERATURE, MEMORY The significance of memory, both individual and collective, is that it mediates between past and future. As Hannah Arendt explained, memory resides between the 'no more' and the 'not yet' in the 'space' of the 'timeless present.' She writes that it's the 'function of memory to “present” (to make present) the past and deprive the past of its definitely bygone character. Memory undoes the past.' The result is that 'memory transforms the past into a future
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