Postcolonial Subjects
Francophone Women Writers
Explores French-language writing by women outside France.
This groundbreaking volume highlights the work of contemporary women writing in French whose cultural links, ethnic identities, and historical roots lie outside France. The writings of these women emanate from the cultures of Africa and the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Quebec and other French-speaking regions of Canada.
Contributors: Eloise A. Brière, Miriam Cooke, Irène Assiba d’Almeida, Joan Dayan, John D. Erickson, Françoise Lionnet, Christiane Makward, Kitzie McKinney, Christopher L. Miller, Mary-Kay Miller, Jane Moss, Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi, Lori Saint-Martin, Ronnie Scharfman.
“The style is sophisticated, dense, and refined, and all quotations are translated, making the research more accessible. This collection will serve as an excellent auxiliary tool for a course on French women writers . . .” Choice
This groundbreaking volume highlights the work of contemporary women writing in French whose cultural links, ethnic identities, and historical roots lie outside France. The writings of these women emanate from the cultures of Africa and the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Quebec and other French-speaking regions of Canada.
By writing in French, the writers discussed in Postcolonial Subjects both acknowledge and write against the cultural heritage of France. In doing so, they participate in the subversion of European literary traditions and take part in various forms of cultural and linguistic blending, generating new artistic currents. Each of these essays articulates contemporary debates about the politics and cultural effects of sexism, homophobia, racism, and essentialism, as well as pointing out connections and points of resistance among such diverse strains as feminism, nationalism, and ethnicity.
Contributors: Eloise A. Brière, U of Albany; Miriam Cooke, Duke U; Irène Assiba d’Almeida, U of Arizona; Joan Dayan, U of Arizona; John D. Erickson, U of Kentucky; Françoise Lionnet, Northwestern U; Christiane Makward, Pennsylvania State U; Kitzie McKinney, Bentley College; Christopher L. Miller, Yale U; Mary-Kay Miller, Vanderbilt U; Jane Moss, Colby College; Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi, Stanford U; Lori Saint-Martin, U du Québec à Montréal; Ronnie Scharfman, Purchase College, SUNY.
“The style is sophisticated, dense, and refined, and all quotations are translated, making the research more accessible. This collection will serve as an excellent auxiliary tool for a course on French women writers . . .” Choice
“The first comment to make about Postcolonial Subjects: Francophone Women Writers is on the excellence of its nineteen essays. . . . compelling and positive.” World Literature
“This collaborative collection of critical essays devoted to writers from Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and francophone Canada is rich in many ways. It allows the reader intrested in a wide scope of francophone fiction to read an entire range of critical essays. It provides scholars well acquainted with a specific francophone literature to read well-crafted insightful essays in their field. And, it promotes thought and discussion concering similarities and differences among women writers using a common language and yet writing from divergent cultural and geographical spaces. Delving into this volume, the reader will be richly rewarded.” L’Esprit Createur
“Postcolonial Subjects is an extremely valuable collection that significantly enriches contemporary scholarship on Francophone feminism outside of France.” Middle East Report
Related Publications
From Cannibals to Radicals
Figures and Limits of Exoticism
In this fascinating analysis, Roger Célestin examines the concept of exoticism from a historical and literary perspective. Through close readings of works by Montaigne, Diderot, Flaubert, Barthes, and Naipaul, Célestin examines the way these writers have challenged representations of cultural identity in their time.
Scattered Hegemonies
Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices
Explores the possibilities of doing feminist work across cultural divides without ignoring differences or falling into cultural relativism. The essays in this volume propose transnational feminist reading and writing practices that counter the "scattered hegemonies" of postmodernism, neo- and postcolonialisms, and feminism. The authors gathered here bring the issues of colonialism and postcolonialism into the typically aesthetic debates over postmodernism and the construction of culture; at the same time, they broaden these debates to include the normally excluded issue of feminist participation.
Transfigurations of the Maghreb
Feminism, Decolonization, and Literatures
Through readings of some of the best-known texts in Algerian literature in French, Woodhull both challenges the separation between French and Francophone literatures and cultures in the academy and explores the ways in which “femininity” has been represented in the texts of North African and French writers since the mid-1950s.