"What makes this book amazingly convincing are the insightful analyses of key literary works, which help illuminate the concept of the "migrant text," and provide in themselves superb examples of contemporary critical readings. The Migrant Text is an original and excellent contribution that should have an extensive readership." - Francois Pare, University of Waterloo

The expression "litterature migrante," coined by Quebecois critics in the mid-1980s, reflected the emerging body of literary works written by recent immigrants to the province. Redefining the concept of migrancy, Subha Xavier's The Migrant Text argues that global movements of people have fundamentally changed literary production over the past thirty years. Bringing together a corpus of recent novels by immigrants to France and Quebec, Xavier suggests that these diverse works extend beyond labels such as francophone or postcolonial literature to forge a new mode of writing that deserves recognition on its own terms. Weaving together literary theory and salient examples taken from numerous French-language novels, The Migrant Text shows how both external and internal factors shape migrant writing in contemporary French literature. The opening chapters trace the elusive concept of the migrant as it appears in extant theories of nationalism, postcolonialism, world literature, and francophonie. What follows are incisive analyses of fiction written for French audiences by authors from Algeria, Cameroon, China, Haiti, Iraq, and Poland, whose works reveal that the processes of troubling national categories and evading colonial power dynamics can be wellsprings for creativity. One of the most pressing social and political topics of our day, immigration challenges our ideas about homeland and citizenship. Celebrating the courage and tenacity of immigrants from around the world, The Migrant Text carves a new space for discussing the dynamics of global literature.
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A wide-ranging analysis of French literature and immigration, inventing a new category for migrant texts.

Product details

ISBN
9780773547599
Published
2016-06-10
Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press; McGill-Queen's University Press
Height
229 mm
Width
152 mm
Age
U, 05
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Number of pages
256

Author

Biographical note

Subha Xavier is assistant professor of French at Emory University.