Self Portrait by Claudine Desrosiers
Department of French & Italian Student-Faculty Forum Series presents
On Métissage and Its Forms: Representation in Contemporary Literature in French
by
Caroline Beschea-Fache
Friday, April 14, 2006
2;30-3:30pm
Ballantine Hall 147
This presentation is part of a larger dissertation project, which investigates the creation and representation of métis characters in contemporary literature in French.
Over the past 20 years, miscegenation, hybridity and multiculturalism (all contained in the French word métissage) have been at the center of many debates and continue to raise questions on the social, political, cultural, artistic and literary scenes. Scholars agree on the erroneous nature of the term miscegenation, based on the axiom presupposing the existence of different races within the human species, yet one is forced to recognize miscegenation as a concrete cultural and social phenomenon as well as a very real way to define a category of individuals in today’s French society.
Recently, there has been a noteworthy increase in the number of writings on miscegenation by authors such as Nina Bouraoui and Bessora. Why is there such an increase in fictional representations of métissage now when miscegenation has existed for a long time in France? What are the stakes of these writings and what response do they offer on the subject?
The presentation will involve a substantial etymological and historical overview of the notion of miscegenation in order to situate it in the contemporary literary context. Miscegenation in literature has taken different forms in its representations as we will see primarily in the works of Bessora, 53cm, Deux Bébés et l’Addition, and Les Tâches d’Encre. Bessora is a young métisse writer, born in Belgium of a Swiss mother and a Gabonese father. The title of her debut novel 53cm refers to the circumference of the protagonist’s rear, Zara, a young bi-racial immigrant who is trying to obtain a visa to stay in France. With a satirical tone, Bessora ferociously critiques France’s institutional racism and challenges the reader by decentering all referents, whether they be social, visual or literary, giving birth to an interesting narrative that could only be called métisse.
Caroline Beschea-Fache is a doctoral student in the French Literature program of the Department of French & Italian. She received a Maîtrise in movie translation (French/English) from the University of Lille III in 2000. She is currently serving as Visiting Lecturer in the Department of French & Italian, where she coordinates 200-level French language classes.
