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The Internationalisation of Maghreb Literature: Between France and the USA?
Abstract
Maghreb literatures (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) constitute, as other peripheral literatures in the World Republic of letters, plurilingual (Arabic, French, and Tamazight) and transnational literary fields, i.e. structured by the opposition between a national and an international pole. The writers of the latter are rather published and recognized abroad. Because of historical, as well as political and economic reasons, the Francophones have long been overrepresented at the international pole, contrary to the Arabophones (especially the Algerian Arabophones, who have long been marginalized in the Arab literary field). But even for the Arabophones (and the Tamazighophones), the French language and France seem to have maintained their centrality for further internationalization through translation: this hypothesis, based on the Algerian case (see: Tahar Ouettar or Waciny Laredj; but not Ahlam Mosteghanemi), however, needs to be verified thanks to the bibliographical database I am building. Nevertheless, I want to address the question of the extent to which this post-colonial (if not postcolonial) relationship between France and the North African literature has been reshaped by the globalization. To what extent do English and the USA play a more central role in the internationalization of North African literature? In addition to the database of translation of Maghreb literature I am constituting, I conduct interviews with the American importers of this literature : editors, translators, literary agents, and scholars. I try to understand their motivations, and their work in framing this literature for the American market (as “North African”, “Arab”, “French”, “Francophone”, “Postcolonial”…). I will focus also on exceptions to the general trend I have shown. It happens to concern three women writers. Moroccan Arabophone Leila Abouzeid was translated in English before French. Algerian Francophone Assia Djebar was recognized in the USA before entering the Académie française. Moroccan Leila Lalami, although trained in French, is the first major North African Anglophone writer, living in the USA. How can we explain this quicker recognition of these North African women writers in the USA compared to France? This question will be addressed through the study of their translations and receptions. As this is ongoing research, not all the questions raised above will be addressed.
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
Maghreb
Sub Area
None