Description
Book SynopsisTransforming Family examines a selection of novels penned by francophone authors who imagine familial aspiration that is decolonial and queer, questioning how family relates to race, gender, class, embodiment, and intersectionality.
Trade Review"In addition to the significant contributions this timely work makes to scholarship on the individual authors analyzed therein, this work will also serve as an invaluable resource to anyone interested in literary representations of family alongside feminist, queer, and intersectional theoretical questions pertaining to social class, race, and gender. It will also be applicable to other writers from other cultures who narrate their own experiences of migration."—Adrienne Angelo,
Women in French Studies“Frelier steeps us in transnational, transcultural, and transdiasporic family formations with rigor and vulnerability—qualities that together provide a deep immersion in texts and lives. The book takes up ‘family’ not as a vehicle to somewhere else, but as a subject worthy of our attention for its own sake. Reaching across disciplinary chasms, it holds something for every reader seeking to understand families as they are.”—Amy Brainer, author of
Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan“An important contribution to French and francophone studies. . . . Given the evolution of family structure and its ever-growing transnational nature, this book is a welcome intervention in our field and beyond. Jocelyn Frelier sheds new light on important works and authors.”—Loïc Bourdeau, editor of
Horrible Mothers: Representations across Francophone North AmericaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments: On Gratitude
A Technical Note: On Quotes and Translations
Prelude: On the Origins of this Project, or Literary Criticism as Feminist Autoethnographic Work
Introduction: Trans- Forming Family: Queer Kinship and Migration in Contemporary Francophone Literature
Interlude 1: On Maternity, Motherhood, and Mothering
1. Mothering beyond Borders: Transnational Queer Mother and Child in Nina Bouraoui’s Garçon manqué (2000)
2. Queering Motherhood: Bad Mothers and Murderous Nannies in Leïla Slimani’s Chanson douce (2016)
Interlude 2: On Paternity, Fatherhood, and Fathering
3. Estranged from the Father: Estrangement Bonds and the Terrorist Son in Leïla Sebbar’s Mon cher fils (2009)
4. Beginning Again: Transcultural Contact and Fatherhood in Azouz Begag’s Salam Ouessant (2012)
Interlude 3: On Horizontal Familial Bonds and Community
5. Adoption: Choosing Family and Coming of Age in Fouad Laroui’s Une année chez les Français (2010)
6. Brotherhood: Emancipatory Fraternal Bonds in Abdellah Taïa’s Celui qui est digne d’être aimé (2017)
Postlude: On Hindsight and Finales
Notes
Bibliography
Index
