Life Writing and Transcultural Youth in Contemporary France : Azouz Begag, Maryam Madjidi, and Laura Alcoba

This book analyses transcultural works of life writing relating to youth and childhood by Azouz Begag, Maryam Madjidi, and Laura Alcoba, of Algerian, Iranian, and Argentinian heritage respectively. With a strong focus on societal issues in France from the turn of the millennium to early 2024, including the intersections between the postcolonial and the transcultural, it analyses the authors’ relationship with France and the “home” country, and the problematic pull of return. Each author uses life writing in a transpersonal manner, and expresses multiple cultural belongings. Begag displays playful yet compulsive self-reinvention, Madjidi uses autofiction in a search for authenticity, and Alcoba’s approach highlights the difficulties of dealing with traumatic personal and national memory. A substantial overview is given of each author’s œuvre, along with societal context for the country of origin or descent, followed by close textual analysis. This is a companion volume to Dervila Cooke’s 2024 monograph on Québec. Acknowledgements About the Book Contents About the Author Chapter 1: Blended Stories Introduction Transculturality Today Translingual Turns: The Irruption of Other Languages Transpersonal Life Writing: Intersecting Selves and Experiences Autobiography as a (Potentially) Wide-Ranging Practice The Ambiguity of Autofiction: A Fruitful Ground for Transcultural Self-Expression Multicultural France 2000–2023, a Brief Overview Cultural Blending and Social Critique in Recent Music and Film Points of Departure References Chapter 2: Azouz Begag: Questions of Home in a French Writer of Algerian Descent Introduction Franco-Algerian and Franco-Maghrebi Relations: Representation, Repression, Reclamation Writing North African Belonging in France A Broad Approach to Life Writing Le Gone Du Chaâba: Between the Local and the Foreign Salam Ouessant and Traces of Algeria: Generational Distance, Exile, and Memoralgia Assorted Franco-Algérianités What Divides and What Connects: Meditations on Bread and Doubles Hospitality, Homecomings, and the Question of Transmission L’Arbre ou la Maison: Being a Bi Splits in the Self, and the Draw of Nostalgia Symbols and Allegories Samy and His Father: The Anger of the Subjugated Techniques of Layering and Conflation Attitudes to France and French, and the Celebration of Sabir Dislocations and Literary Connections References Chapter 3: Maryam Madjidi: Multiple Belongings, Authenticity, and the Dilemmas of Self-Acceptance Introduction Iranian Ties of Past and Present Madjidi’s Autofictional and Transpersonal Life Writing Embodied Imagery of Selfhood: Photography, Text, Video, Theatre Marx et la Poupée: Towards an Acceptance of the Wobbly Self Polysemic Motifs, and Tiny Shards of Intense Memory and Pain Twists and Turns: Shifts of Form, Perspective, and Addressee Homage, Anger, and the Need to Bear Witness The Growth of Authenticity The Sustenance and Comfort of the Well-Told Tale Pour que je M’aime Encore: Finding Home in the Margins Prisons of Perception and of Social Realities Obstacles of Social Disadvantage and Elitist Educational Pressure Cookers Space Travel A Biting Humour Subverting Stereotypes References Chapter 4: Laura Alcoba’s Autofictional Memorials of Youth Introduction Argentina’s Legacy of Terror An Autofictional Web in Print and Image, and Its Internet Extensions Les Rives de la mer douce: An Autobiographical Phototext Manèges: Doubling Back on the Self Loss, Absence, and Traces Secrets and Speculation A Tainted Childhood Le Bleu des abeilles: A Hall of Mirrors Constructed Images of Selfhood Knitting the Self Through Memory and Language: From Chaos to a Certain Order The Dynamics of French and Spanish Displacement, Doubleness, Disappearance The Red, White, and Blue of Identity La Danse de l’araignée: Extending the Web Languages and Self-Construction Echoes of Argentina and the Presence of an Absence Par la forêt: Beyond the Autobiographical “Trilogy” Repetition and Fractures of Selfhood Polyphony, Colour, and Legend Creating, Healing, and Connecting References Chapter 5: Creating Places to Inhabit: “In-between” Self-Expression in France Introduction: Transnational, Transcultural, Translingual, and Postcolonial Intersections Transmemorial Resonances and the Personal Political Gendered and General Social Critique Multiple Connections, Assorted Media, Diverse Belongings Questioning, Reframing, and Performing Identities Dialogic Relationships: The Writer-Reader Bond Assertions of the Plurilingual Self Acts of Transculturalism Personal Manifestations of Transculturated Frenchness References Index