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A CULTURAL STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY FRENCH NARRATIVE BY JEWISH, BEUR, AND ANTILLEAN AUTHORS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Meaghan Elizabeth Emery, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2001 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Jean-François Foumy, Adviser Professor Judith Mayne Ÿ M s Adviser Professor John Conteh-Morgan Dept, of French and Italian UMI Number: 3031196 Copyright 2001 by Emery, Meaghan Elizabeth All rights reserved. UMI UMI Microform 3031196 Copyright 2002 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by Meaghan Elizabeth Emery 2001 ABSTRACT Starting from the basis that identity, individual or communal, is a narrative construct, the following study attempts to uncover the ways in which Jewish, Beur, and Antillean narrative is informing French national identity. Identity construction involves the positioning of boundaries, geographical or psychological, and engenders divisions separating human entities. The Jew, the Arab, the black, among others, including the lower classes and women, have traditionally been posited as Other in French national discourse. However, today, in a culturally plural France, Jewish, Arab, and black citizens are challenging inherited notions through their writing, which gives them a voice from the privileged position of narrative subject. Though these new subjectivities have had to speak from within the confinement of stereotypes, their use of narrative strategies succeeds in breaking through traditional discourse and, in effect, transforms it. Through their testimony on the past, narration of the present, and projection into the future, the works I analyze, respectively Claude Lanzmann's Shoah and Martine Dugowson’s Mina Tannenbaim, Leila Sebbar’s Le Chinois vert d'Afrique and Azouz Begag’sLe Gone du Chaâba, and Maryse Condé’s Heremakhonon and Patrick Chamoiseau’s Texaco, are intrinsically concerned with the problematic of identity. Specifically, they engage in recovering the memory of the Shoah, integrating excluded ethnic subjects into the national space, and reconstructing the national idea toward a more pluralist vision, as opposed to France’s traditional policy of assimilation. Their unique practices of cross-cultural hybridization make manifest both the literary and social changes occurring within the French narrative and nation. Finally, the conclusion explores how these struggles for maintaining cultural specificity within France are reflected on the national level before American economic hegemony. In essence, government officials have adopted their discursive elements in order to defend the diversity of French culture and the vibrancy of its expression against the homogenizing pressures of globalization. The active protection of national culture through government patronage, however, is treading a fine line between reactionary cultural populism and Eurocentric elitism. Ultimately, the future vitality of the French nation may depend on how rigorously the State defends the multiple elements of its culture by fully liberating the voices expressing that diversity. Ill To Jean Sébastien, Alexandre, and Julien IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my appreciation to all of my teachers who have instilled in me their love for the languages, literatures, and cultures of the French-speaking world. I especially thank my adviser Jean-François Foumy for his unfailing encouragement, intellectual rigor, good humor, and patience. His enthusiastic support carried me through the arduous dissertation writing process. My gratitude further extends to Judith Mayne, John Conteh-Morgan, Danielle Marx-Scouras, and Karl is Racevskis, whose guidance and inspiration throughout my years at The Ohio State University specifically contributed to this project. I also wish to recognize the contributions of Anthony Allen, Lawrence Schehr, Shoggy Waryn, Jennifer Willging, Sébastien Hily, Fabienne Jouy, Pierre Pelletier, and many others here and abroad who have shared their advice and personal insights with me. I am deeply grateful to my family, my parents and sister, who have always taken active interest in my scholastic pursuits and without whom this accomplishment would not have been possible. O f course, I cannot neglect to mention the French, many of whom I have come to know and love, including my husband. My husband and our two sons bring joy and balance to my life and have buoyed me in my academic and creative endeavors. Thanks most of all to you. VITA July 15. 1969 .................................................... Bom - Winona, Minnesota 1991 .................................................................. BA French, Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois 1994 .................................................................. MA French, The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1991-1992 ........................................................ English Assistant, Sainte Ursule {lycée) Tours, France 1992-199 4 ........................................................ Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1994-1996 ........................................................ English Lecturer, L’Université de Rennes I SCELVA, Rennes. France 1996-present..................................................... Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATION " The Struggle for (Sexual) Being in Simone de Beauvoir’sL 'Invitée." Simone de Beattvoir Studies 15 (1998-1999): 83-95. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian Areas of Specialization: French/Francophone literatures, cultures, and film VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract......................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ....................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................v V ita................................................................................................................................................ vi Chapters: 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... I 2. M em ory ............................................................................................................................21 2.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................22 2.2 Shoah ..................................................................................................................32 2.3 Mina Tannenbaum............................................................................................ 48 3. Space................................................................................................................................69 3.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................70 3.2 Le Chinois vert d'A frique ................................................................................. 84 3.3 Le Gone du Chaâba..........................................................................................99 4. N ation .......................................................................................................................... 117 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 119 4.2 Heremakhonon ............................................................................................... 137 4.3 Texaco............................................................................................................