Author of numerous books since 1991 and winner of the 2005 Prix Renaudot, Nina Bouraoui persistently explores the question of self-expression in her work. This study of Bouraoui's work examines how self-referential writing can represent a crucial act of resistance to a number of contemporary problems, including race, gender and social isolation.

The motif of the 'identity quest' features strongly in much contemporary French women's writing, but nowhere more so than in the work of Nina Bouraoui. Author of numerous books since 1991 and winner of the 2005 Prix Renaudot, Bouraoui persistently explores the question of self-expression in her work, experimenting with a variety of self-representational modes and emphasising the importance of language to the construction of her sense of self. Considering the textual identities produced through Bouraoui's work in the period 19992011, this book examines how self-referential writing can represent a crucial act of resistance to a number of contemporary problems, including race, gender and social isolation. Using the work of Monique Wittig and Judith Butler to theorise the transformative potential of the literary text, the author proposes autofiction as a uniquely unrestricted space, which for writers such as Bouraoui may provide the only medium through which to formulate a coherent and manageable sense of self.

Autorentext

Rosie MacLachlan lectures in learning development in London and southeast England, specialising in the teaching of language and literacy in higher education. She completed an MSt in Modern Languages at St John s College, University of Oxford, and a PhD in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin.

Klappentext

The motif of the identity quest features strongly in much contemporary French women s writing, but nowhere more so than in the work of Nina Bouraoui. Author of numerous books since 1991 and winner of the 2005 Prix Renaudot, Bouraoui persistently explores the question of self-expression in her work, experimenting with a variety of self-representational modes and emphasising the importance of language to the construction of her sense of self. Considering the textual identities produced through Bouraoui s work in the period 1999 2011, this book examines how self-referential writing can represent a crucial act of resistance to a number of contemporary problems, including race, gender and social isolation. Using the work of Monique Wittig and Judith Butler to theorise the transformative potential of the literary text, the author proposes autofiction as a uniquely unrestricted space, which for writers such as Bouraoui may provide the only medium through which to formulate a coherent and manageable sense of self.

Inhalt

Contents: Introduction: Seeking Selfhood in the Textual - Acts of Resistance: Rewriting Gender and Sexuality - Garçon manqué: Resisting Language as Violence - La vie heureuse: Reappropriating the Self - Poupée bella: Textual Escape - Recovering from Loss: The Textual Return to Algeria - Le jour du séisme: Broken Land, Broken Childhood - Sauvage and Mes mauvaises pensées: Coming of Age in Algeria - Sauvage and Mes mauvaises pensées: Leaving Childhood Behind - Writing for Others? Relational Identity and the Textual Encounter - Poupée bella and Avant les hommes: Escaping Isolation through Reading - Appelez-moi par mon prénom: Textual Relations - Nos baisers sont des adieux: Resolving the Quest