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Non - Fiction
Nov 2006 |
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Dear all,
Our November issue marks the anniversary of the riots of last fall that fragmented the French "banlieues." These events were widely covered in the media, both in France and abroad.
One year later, what have we learned? What do French scholars know and say about the riots that swept through France for several weeks?
The situation of the banlieues in France is a moving and complex reality, which is difficult to capture in a snapshot. The multiplicity of voices from the banlieues forces us to adopt a panoramic gaze, which is why it seems especially opportune for us to interweave fiction and non-fiction, the imaginary and the rigorously researched, to give, even far from the cities, a fair image, a realistic image.
Before entering into analysis, let’s note the publication in September of the much anticipated second novel by the young author and director, Faïza Guène, Du rêve pour les oufs, (Hachette Littérature). In 2004, Faïza Guène, who was only 19 years old at the time, let us hear in Kiffe Kiffe Demain a remarkable voice, both moving and captivating, about the life of a young woman in a Parisian banlieue. This book fills a gap, portraying in a novel, today’s urban life beyond the picture we see in the media. An immense success in French bookstores, this first novel was published in the U.S. by Harcourt.
In France, two anthologies that revisit and analyze the events of last November were published during the course of the year. In the first, Quand la ville se défait, quelle politique face à la crise des banlieues, Jacques Donzelot attempts to understand the factors, often linked to geography and urban politics, that led the youth of the French cities to revolt. In the second, Quand les banlieues brûlent, Retour sur les émeutes de novembre 2005, two scholars, Véronique Le Goaziou and Laurent Mucchielli, wonder about the state of French society that these riots reflected : the role of schools, the police, and the social and economic situation of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods.
We also draw your attention to two essays about the model of the French republic : La République brûle-t-elle ? Essai sur les violences urbaines françaises, edited by Raphaël Drai and Jean-François Mattei, in which several scholars question the model of French integration, whose failure could well be at the root of this brutal tearing apart of the French social and cultural fabric. The second, La République mise à nu par son immigration, edited by Nacira Guénif Souillamas, analyzes the discourse and stakes of post-colonial society and its effects on the French republic.
Another work on the question of Islam in France attracted our attention : L’Islam dans la Cité. Dialogue avec les jeunes Musulmans de France, edited by Yacine Demaison. This work offers a forum for expression for French Muslim youth by offering them a way to respond to questions and to the adults who surround them.
Finally, in another anthology, Emeutes urbaines et protestations. Un singularité française, scholars under the direction of Hughes Lagrange and Marco Oberti, return to the tradition of protest and revolt in France, expressed last year during the November riots and the student actions of March.
We also note the publication in 2007 of two works by Azouz Begag through the University of Nebraska Press : Shantytown Kids and Ethnicity and Equality : France in the Balance.
And finally, we also direct your attention to our publication, To My American Readers, with excerpts from the novel by Frédéric Valabrègue, The Mauvestis, which offers another vision of the banlieues in France. www.frenchbooknews.com/TMAR.pdf (page 20)
Happy reading !
Fabrice Rozié, Anne-Sophie Hermil, Anne-Sophie Simenel et Margot Loizillon
Special thanks to Rachel Spiegel and Frédéric Viguier.