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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Display on Display: Migrating Identities in Contemporary Francophone Literature and Music Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cj1w73t Author Knox, Katelyn Elizabeth Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Display on Display: Migrating Identities in Contemporary Francophone Literature and Music A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies by Katelyn Elizabeth Knox 2013 © Copyright by Katelyn Elizabeth Knox 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Display on Display: Migrating Identities in Contemporary Francophone Literature and Music By Katelyn Elizabeth Knox Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Dominic Thomas, Chair “Display on Display: Migrating Identities in Contemporary Francophone Literature and Music” examines Francophone cultural works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that grapple with constructions of sub-Saharan African immigrant identity in France. Its cultural studies methodology responds to a current lacuna in traditional philology-based literary studies that divorces literary expression from its wider cultural context, bringing to the fore questions of corporeality, history, and identity formation. The texts this project analyzes—broadly defined to include literature, music, fashion, dance, and visual art—lay bare the ways in which articulations of alterity, paradoxically, helped to solidify images of Frenchness. The works, I argue, critique rigid notions of identity in two principal ways. The texts examined in the first half of this study—by Didier Daeninckx, J. R. Essomba, Salif Keïta, and Meïway—call into question how 1990s French political discourse ignored the ways in which the larger histories of colonization and the slave trade laid the foundation for ii contemporary migratory pathways. By resuscitating these historical moments in conjunction with sub-Saharan African immigration, the works call into question immigrants’ exclusion from historically-based notions of national identity. Yet by associating the black body with these historical moments, these works risk suggesting that there exists a homogeneous black community in France that would share such histories. In the second half of this study, thus, I turn to more recent works by Alain Mabanckou and Léonora Miano that both establish and question the existence of a black community in France (and its relationship to diaspora and origin), scrutinizing the criteria upon which such a community would be based. Each of the works selected for this study also exposes how specters of the borders the immigrant figures cross are remapped onto the landscape in which cultural objects (including the texts themselves) circulate. Keenly attuned to the generic classifications—“Francophone,” “world music,” and “African immigrant literature,” among others—that package them and their authors, the works (just like this project) ultimately seek to transcend such disciplinary boundaries. iii The dissertation of Katelyn Elizabeth Knox is approved. Lia Brozgal Alain Mabanckou Timothy Taylor Dominic Thomas, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv To my parents, Jeffrey and JoAnn Knox, with eternal love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………... ii List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………. vii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………. viii Vita…………………………………………………………………………………………... x Introduction Display on Display…………………………………………………………………………... 1 Chapter One: Behind the Scenes: Exhibiting Display Culture at the 1931 Exposition………………… 33 Chapter Two: Sans-Papiers but not Sans-Voix: (Re)Writing Black Atlantic History in Francophone Immigration Literature and Music………………………………………………………. 75 Chapter Three: Selling (out) Racial Identity in the Black Bazar: Negotiating Alain Mabanckou’s Black France……………………………………………………………………………………. 122 Chapter Four: Re-Membering Afropeanism: Intermediality in Léonora Miano’s Blues pour Élise……. 169 Outro Beyond Borders……………………………………………………………………………… 210 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………… 215 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Pol Rab’s first drawing of “Nénufar,” Les Enfants de France 69 (1931)………... 49 Figure 2: Pol Rab, “Nénufar—Moi aussi je me déguise,” Les Enfants de France 74 (1931). 50 Figure 3: African dancer in opening shot of Salif Keïta’s “Nou Pas Bouger” (1989)……… 98 Figure 4: Handcuffed arms in opening of Salif Keïta’s “Nou Pas Bouger” (1989)…………. 99 Figure 5: Shackled feet in Salif Keïta’s “Nou Pas Bouger” (1989)…………………………. 101 Figure 6: Multiethnic chorus in Salif Keïta’s “Nou Pas Bouger” (1989)…………………… 101 Figure 7: Meiway staring through vertical bars in “Je suis sans-papiers” (2004)…………… 107 Figure 8: Meiway begging in front of metro entrance in “Je suis sans-papiers” (2004)…….. 107 Figure 9: Archival colonial footage projected on hanging strips in Keïta and L’Skadrille’s “Nou Pas Bouger” (2007)…………………………………………………………… 112 Figure 10: Police with handcuffed immigrant in Keïta and L’Skadrille’s “Nou Pas Bouger” (2007)………………………………………………………………………………... 113 Figure 11: Dancing figure’s shadow in front of hanging strips in Keïta and L’Skadrille’s “Nou Pas Bouger”…………………………………………………………………… 115 Figure 12: Salif Keïta and L’Skadrille walking in front of graffiti at end of “Nou Pas Bouger” (2007)………………………………………………………………………. 118 Figure 13: Camera moves to reveal scene from Figure 12 is projected onto hanging strips in Keïta and L’Skadrille’s “Nou Pas Bouger” (2007) ………………………………. 118 Figure 14: White sapeur doing a danse des griffes to show off his socks in “Black Bazar Face A” (2012)………………………………………………………………………. 167 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For their funding and support at various stages of the researching and writing of this project, I am grateful to the UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies, the UCLA Graduate Division, the UCLA Office for Instructional Development, and Williams College. I owe my deepest thanks to the members of my committee for their patience and insightful feedback, and for, each in his or her own way, serving as an example of the scholar I aspire to become. This project would not be what it is without Alain Mabanckou’s feedback at its earliest stages, as well as his continued insights into contemporary Francophone culture. Timothy Taylor will forever be my model for what it means to be a theoretically engaged yet articulate, and thoughtful scholar, and I thank him for helping me to better bridge the divide between literary and musical conversations. Lia Brozgal’s keen attention to detail and thoughtful questions and critiques from this study’s beginning have undeniably challenged me to sharpen my analytical capacities, and this project is much stronger because of them. Beyond this, I am grateful for her generosity and mentorship throughout my studies. Dominic Thomas, my committee chair, has taught me what it means to be a champion for Francophone studies. His dedication to this project from its inception and his advice at all stages have pushed me to think more critically and synthetically. I owe each of them more than I can express. I am also grateful to Kashia Pieprzak and Amadou Ouédraogo, whose courses I took as an undergraduate cultivated in me a passion for Francophone studies. Their guidance and encouragement during my sustained study of Coupé-décalé music pushed me to redefine my notion of texts—a step without which this project would not have been imagined. Each of my colleagues, both past and present, has provided encouragement and served as the sounding board without which this project could not have been completed. I would like to viii thank my swimming partner, Ruth Jones, my running partner, Carolyn Embree, and my writing partners at various stages—Kirk Sides, Kate Schlosser, Michelle Bumatay, and Allison Crumly Van Deventer. Allison Crumly Van Deventer especially, has mentored me in more ways than I can count, and has shown extreme generosity with her time and patience. For this and for her friendship, I am forever grateful. For her friendship and constant optimism as we completed our doctoral studies, I also thank Brittany Asaro. For their unwavering support, unconditional love and infinite patience, I thank my family: Joyce and Bob Kaapke in memoriam; Bernadette Pearson, in memoriam; Karen, Dale and Liliha Hotard; and Christopher, Jeffrey, and JoAnn Knox. I thank especially my brother, Christopher Knox, whose love of music and whose courage are continual sources of inspiration. My parents, Jeffrey and JoAnn Knox taught me to challenge myself, to follow my passions, and to expand my horizons. I never would have imagined, much less realized, study in Cameroon— the cornerstone upon which this project rests—without their support. Finally, I would like to thank Micah Wendell, whose love, graciousness, and unfaltering willingness to walk beside me have carried me through this project. ix VITA 2007 B.A., French Language and Literature concentration in African Studies Williams College Williamstown, MA 2007 Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Graduate Division University of California, Los Angeles 2008-2009 Teaching Assistant Department of French and Francophone Studies University of California, Los Angeles 2009-2010 Teaching Associate Department of French and Francophone Studies University of

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