International Journal of Francophone Studies - Volume 18, Issue 4, 2015

In Linda Lê’s account of exile, the figure of the father is central: he embodies Lê’s (lost) Vietnamese origins and is intimately linked to language. This article offers a critical analysis of the connection between language and the lost father in Lê’s autofictional novel Lettre morte. Arguing that this text can be considered an almost programmatic interpretation of Lacanian theories of the father and psychosis, the article also considers how Lê extends these theories to account for her narrator’s position between two language systems: French and Vietnamese. In Lê’s literary treatment of Lacanian theory her characters represent different positions within and outside language(s): they are essentially ‘marionnettes’ that she manipulates and uses to act out the power relations at play in language, dramatically enacting the struggle that occurs when the paternal function fails, and an individual is repeatedly exiled from language.

The work of André Lefevere, amongst others, has sensitized us to the politics of colonial translation/rewriting, but what of authors from the ‘cultural periphery’ who rewrite their own works for reception in the metropolis? This article examines the case of Gary Victor’s A l’angle des rues parallèles – a novel first published in Haiti in 2000 and republished in France in 2003. An analysis of the numerous, and largely unacknowledged alterations (corrections, omissions and additions) made by Victor and his publisher for the French edition leads to the conclusion that Victor’s very deliberate rewriting of his novel can only fully be understood in the context of the political struggles in Haiti 2000–2003, Victor’s own investment in those struggles, and the former colonial power’s role in Haiti at that moment.

This article interrogates the neglected relationships between métissage, corporeality, memory and foodways within Francophone Asia-Pacific literatures written by Asiatic migrant writers of the French language. By focusing specifically on two texts, Ook Chung’s Kimchi (2001) and Jimmy Ly’s Bonbon soeurette et pai coco (1997), this study explores the various constructions of mixed-race, multiethnic diasporic identity through the intake and symbolism of food. Both multiethnic protagonists in these two texts exhibit sentiments of delocalization and otherness. However, through literal and epistemic acts of alimentary consumption that interlink with nostalgia, Chung’s and Ly’s protagonists structure individual and collective memories, while challenging certain intra-ethnic tensions and notions of hybridizing roots, language and cultural production.

The situation of the French language has been a matter of discussion and concern for some time across the Francophone world. Signs of this can be seen in France with the loi Toubon and the loi Fioraso, and in Quebec where the Marois government proposed modifications to the Charte de la langue française. The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, for its part, has moved in recent years towards formulating a new language policy. This led to the Premier Forum mondial de la langue française, held in Quebec City in 2012. Despite the success of this event, problems and paradoxes persist regarding the future place of French.

The year 1896 has remained engraved in the collective memory of the Mossi people. Indeed, this date has marked the forfeiture of the sovereignty of the emperor of the Mossi; the Mogho Naba Wobgo also called Boukary Koutou. The French colonial power has defeated and chased him out of his kingdom territory, thanks to the firepower that had been blown fiercely by Voulet Chanoine, one of the French brutal colonizers. Boukary Koutou knowing that he will not overcome these invaders, decided to run away, which can be considered as kind of ‘marronnage’ under the tropics, leaving behind him more questions than answers for his subjects. This unprecedented run away left wounds and stigmates that shook the Mossi collective core identity for which it is still yearning for healing and restoration. This article aims to depict the concept of identity myth and crises in conjunction with France conquest in Africa. Eliade, Jung and Kerenyi theories provide insights to understand the construction of the Mossi Identity myth through the findings of Guilhem et al., Kawada (2002), Hien and Salo. The objective of this article will be to witness the great impact of domination on collective identity evolution and perception.

We are Imazighen: The Development of Algerian Berber Identity in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture, Fazia Aitel (2014) University Press of Florida, 324 pp., ISBN-10: 0813049393, $74.95

From Francophonie to World Literature in French: Ethics, Poetics, & Politics, Thérèse Migraine-George (2013) Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 237 pp., ISBN: 9780803246362

Trajectoires et dérives de la littérature-monde: Poétiques de la relation et du divers dans les espaces francophones, Colloque de l’APLAQA, Cécilia W. Francis and Robert Viau (ed.) (2013) 1st ed., Amsterdam: Rodopi, 608 pp., ISBN-10: 9042036877, h/bk, £84, ISBN-13: 9789042036871, $122

Language and Literary Form in French Caribbean Writing, Celia Britton (2014) Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 256 pp., ISBN: 9781781380369, h/bk, £70

Les écrivains maghrébins francophones et l’Islam. Constance dans la diversité, Najib Rédouane (coord.) (2013) Paris: Editions L’Harmattan, 460 pp., ISBN: 9782343017204

Critical Conditions: Illness and Disability in Francophone African and Caribbean Women’s Writing, Julie N. Ngue (2012) Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 208 pp., ISBN: 9780739151143, h/bk, $80/£49.95

A Poetics of Relation: Caribbean Women Writing at the Millennium, Odile Ferly (2012) New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 222 pp., ISBN: 9780230120440, h/bk, $95

L’Humour et l’ironie en littérature francophone subsaharienne. Des enjeux critiques à une poétique du rire, Vincent Simédoh (2012) New York: Peter Lang, 169 pp., ISBN: 9781433115431, h/bk, £47

From Sugar to Revolution: Women’s Visions of Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Myriam J. A. Chancy (2012) Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 358 pp., ISBN: 9781554584284, h/bk, $85

France’s Colonial Legacies, Fiona Barclay (2013) Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 260 pp., ISBN: 9780708326671, h/bk, £95

Rethinking Reading, Writing, and a Moral Code in Contemporary France. Postcolonializing High Culture in the Schools of the Republic, Michel Laronde (2014) Lanham: Lexington Books, 222 pp., ISBN: 9780739181669

Mythes et Erotismes dans les littératures et les cultures francophones de l’extrême contemporain, Efstratia Oktapoda (ed.) (2013) Amsterdam: Rodopi, 314 pp., ISBN: 9789042037624, p/bk, £55.62

What is Québécois Literature?, Rosemary Chapman (2013) Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 292 pp., ISBN: 9781846319730, £70.00

After ‘Rwanda’. In Search of a New Ethic, Jean-Paul Martinon (2013) Amsterdam: Rodopi, 308 pp., ISBN: 9789042037113, p/bk, £58.50

Les français d’ici et d’aujourd’hui. Description, représentation et théorisation, Bigot, Davy, Friesner, Michael et Tremblay Mireille (sous la dir.) (2013) Canada: Presses de l’Université Laval, Les Voies du français (coll.), 260 pp., ISBN: 9782763797700

Bilingual Being. My life as a Hyphen, Kathleen Saint-Onge (2013) Montreal, Kingston, London and Ithaca: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 328 pp., ISBN: 9780773541191

Cousin K, Yasmina Khadra (trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith and Alyson Waters) (2013) Lincoln NE: Nebraska University Press, 85 pp., ISBN: 9780803234932, p/bk, US$15.95

Conflict Bodies: The Politics of Rape Representation in the Francophone Imaginary, Régine Michelle Jean-Charles (2014) Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 320 pp., ISBN: 9780814212462, h/bk, $69.95

Écritures féminines et dialogues critiques: Subjectivité, genre et ironie, Françoise, Lionnet (2012) Ile Maurice: L’Atelier d’écriture, 315 pp., ISBN: 99903-36-68-7