Description
Book SynopsisThe motif of the ‘identity quest’ features strongly in much contemporary French women’s writing, but nowhere more so than in the work of Nina Bouraoui. Author of numerous books since 1991 and winner of the 2005 Prix Renaudot, Bouraoui persistently explores the question of self-expression in her work, experimenting with a variety of self-representational modes and emphasising the importance of language to the construction of her sense of self.
Considering the textual identities produced through Bouraoui’s work in the period 1999–2011, this book examines how self-referential writing can represent a crucial act of resistance to a number of contemporary problems, including race, gender and social isolation. Using the work of Monique Wittig and Judith Butler to theorise the transformative potential of the literary text, the author proposes autofiction as a uniquely unrestricted space, which for writers such as Bouraoui may provide the only medium through which to formulate a coherent and manageable sense of self.
Trade Review«Overall, this essay on Nina Bouraoui’s autofictional writing makes an important contribution to gender and genre studies in the field of Francophone literature, along with constituting a very thorough analysis of Bouraoui’s work that is, as far as I know, unprecedented.»
(Nathalie Segeral, H-France Review Vol. 17/2017)
Read the full review here
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction: Seeking Selfhood in the Textual – Acts of Resistance: Rewriting Gender and Sexuality –
Garçon manqué: Resisting Language as Violence –
La vie heureuse: Reappropriating the Self –
Poupée bella: Textual Escape – Recovering from Loss: The Textual Return to Algeria –
Le jour du séisme: Broken Land, Broken Childhood –
Sauvage and
Mes mauvaises pensées: Coming of Age in Algeria –
Sauvage and
Mes mauvaises pensées: Leaving Childhood Behind – Writing for Others? Relational Identity and the Textual Encounter –
Poupée bella and
Avant les hommes: Escaping Isolation through Reading –
Appelez-moi par mon prénom: Textual Relations – Nos baisers sont des adieux: Resolving the Quest
