A francophone literature in search of legitimacy: the case of "banlieue literature"

Abstract

This article is intended to be a critical reflection on a rather particular literary expression, known as "banlieue literature". In spite of its emerging in France, this literature struggles to find a place in the French literary landscape. In this contribution, the intention is to explain why these so-called "banlieue" writings remain marginal. Why these literatures, although produced in France and by French authors, still remain catalogued on the basis of an ethnic or spatial logic and still do not manage to enjoy appreciable literary visibility in French society will be determined. The purpose is to show that the stereotypes and language deployed in this literature are partly responsible for its banishment from society. It will also be the intention to show the negative impact of stereotypes on this writing (discrimination, unemployment, delinquency, drugs), which the work is summoned to take up in the form of themes, giving the feeling of reading documentary novels. In addition to this, the paper will focus on the specific character of the language used by these authors, marked by a kind of "ghetto talk" whose essential function would be to counter a certain French linguistic centralism. The end of the paper opens up the idea of a world literature whose objective would be to make possible for these authors the transition from an identity assigned to a space to a borderless world identity.