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Enduring Negativity

Representations of Albinism in the Novels of Didier Destremau, Patrick Grainville and Williams Sassine

by Charlotte Baker (Author)
©2011 Monographs VIII, 218 Pages
Series: Modern French Identities, Volume 96

Summary

This study focuses on fictional representations of albinism in the work of the French writers Didier Destremau and Patrick Grainville, and the Francophone Guinean writer Williams Sassine. The focus on selected novels allows for an in-depth study of each narrative and sheds new critical light on these under-studied writers, permitting a comparative discussion of the novels in relation to other writing about albinism. A series of common themes can be found in these novels, which, although present in different combinations and intensities, echo the preoccupations of all fictional writing about albinism. They include a recognition of the problematic relationship between inner and outer reality (in both bodily terms and in relation to notions of inclusion and exclusion), the challenging of accepted categories and designations, and the consequent problematisation of the relationship between Self and Other. Bound up with these issues, of course, are questions of identity and power.

Details

Pages
VIII, 218
Publication Year
2011
ISBN (PDF)
9783035301106
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034301794
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0353-0110-6
Language
English
Publication date
2011 (August)
Keywords
questions of identity and power writing about albinism Didier Destremau and Patrick Grainville Williams Sassine
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2011. VIII, 218 pp.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Charlotte Baker (Author)

Charlotte Baker is Lecturer in French in the Department of European Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University. She holds an MA and PhD in French and Francophone Literatures from the University of Nottingham and her research interests centre broadly on twentieth-century French and Francophone fictional writing. Her current research focuses on the theory and representation of the body and identity, and more particularly on the representation of marginalised and stigmatised groups in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Title: Enduring Negativity