Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2022.2147913
Olivier Esteves
ABSTRACT In a context when Islamophobia peaked in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks, evidence has been mounting that a growing number of French Muslims have been leaving the country. This article explores, through a combination of quantitative (survey) and qualitative (semi-directed interviews) methods, some of the key drivers of this flight from France. Moral panics around secularism but more crucially questions of discrimination on the job market are at the heart of this silent flight from the country these people were born in. Ultimately, this emigration from France constitutes a real brain drain, as it is primarily highly educated French Muslims who decide to leave.
{"title":"France, you love it but leave it: the silent flight of French Muslims","authors":"Olivier Esteves","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2022.2147913","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2147913","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In a context when Islamophobia peaked in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks, evidence has been mounting that a growing number of French Muslims have been leaving the country. This article explores, through a combination of quantitative (survey) and qualitative (semi-directed interviews) methods, some of the key drivers of this flight from France. Moral panics around secularism but more crucially questions of discrimination on the job market are at the heart of this silent flight from the country these people were born in. Ultimately, this emigration from France constitutes a real brain drain, as it is primarily highly educated French Muslims who decide to leave.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"243 - 257"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48735878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2023.2176838
Fatima Khemilat
RÉSUMÉ Le Conseil constitutionnel français a approuvé en août 2021, avec des modifications mineures, la « loi confortant le respect des principes de la République ». Ce dispositif juridique fait suite aux discours du président Emmanuel Macron en 2020, au cours desquels il a présenté son plan de lutte contre le « séparatisme islamiste ». Parmi les mesures annoncées : imposer la neutralité des organisations qui collaborent avec les services publics, permettre au gouvernement d'exercer un contrôle accru sur les associations, mosquées et organisations caritatives musulmanes, exiger une autorisation pour l'enseignement à domicile, limiter la liberté d'expression en ligne, proscrire les « certificats de virginité » ou encore renforcer la lutte contre la polygamie. Pour les défenseurs des libertés fondamentales, la lutte contre le séparatisme illustre la gestion de « l’islam », par le gouvernement français, comme un « problème public » qui menacerait la sécurité et l’unité nationale. Cet article propose de souligner de quelles manières cette loi porte de multiples atteintes aux libertés politiques, associatives, religieuses, d’entreprendre et d’expression des populations musulmanes en France, sous couvert de la défense de la laïcité et de l’égalité hommes/femmes.
{"title":"La loi contre le « séparatisme » : mort et résurrection d’une « justice d’exception »","authors":"Fatima Khemilat","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2023.2176838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2023.2176838","url":null,"abstract":"RÉSUMÉ Le Conseil constitutionnel français a approuvé en août 2021, avec des modifications mineures, la « loi confortant le respect des principes de la République ». Ce dispositif juridique fait suite aux discours du président Emmanuel Macron en 2020, au cours desquels il a présenté son plan de lutte contre le « séparatisme islamiste ». Parmi les mesures annoncées : imposer la neutralité des organisations qui collaborent avec les services publics, permettre au gouvernement d'exercer un contrôle accru sur les associations, mosquées et organisations caritatives musulmanes, exiger une autorisation pour l'enseignement à domicile, limiter la liberté d'expression en ligne, proscrire les « certificats de virginité » ou encore renforcer la lutte contre la polygamie. Pour les défenseurs des libertés fondamentales, la lutte contre le séparatisme illustre la gestion de « l’islam », par le gouvernement français, comme un « problème public » qui menacerait la sécurité et l’unité nationale. Cet article propose de souligner de quelles manières cette loi porte de multiples atteintes aux libertés politiques, associatives, religieuses, d’entreprendre et d’expression des populations musulmanes en France, sous couvert de la défense de la laïcité et de l’égalité hommes/femmes.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"183 - 198"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44452625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2023.2171977
J. Wolfreys
ABSTRACT This article examines the entrenchment of Islamophobia during Emmanuel Macron’s first term. It explores legislation to counter ‘separatism’, the radicalisation of laïcité, the restriction of Muslimness, and the political disqualification of Muslims. The deployment of laïcité to distinguish those who are ‘really’ French and those who are not is identified as part of an authoritarian neoliberal project seeking public participation in processes of scrutiny and ‘vigilance’ that accentuate the stigmatisation of Muslims.
{"title":"‘Avec Vous?’ Islamophobia and the Macron presidency","authors":"J. Wolfreys","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2023.2171977","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2023.2171977","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the entrenchment of Islamophobia during Emmanuel Macron’s first term. It explores legislation to counter ‘separatism’, the radicalisation of laïcité, the restriction of Muslimness, and the political disqualification of Muslims. The deployment of laïcité to distinguish those who are ‘really’ French and those who are not is identified as part of an authoritarian neoliberal project seeking public participation in processes of scrutiny and ‘vigilance’ that accentuate the stigmatisation of Muslims.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"165 - 182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49248864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2023.2195622
Nadia Kiwan, J. Wolfreys
In the summer of 2021, a series of posters produced by the Ministère de l’éducation nationale appeared on advertising spaces across France. They showed white and nonwhite students together in various educational and sporting settings with slogans that appeared to highlight a causal link between diversity and laïcité. ‘Permettre à Mihan et Aliyah de rire aux mêmes histoires, c’est ça la laïcité.’ ‘Permettre à Sacha et Neissa d’être dans le même bain, c’est ça, la laïcité’ (Ministère de l’Éducation nationale 2021). The posters appeared to be saying that it was laïcité that facilitated the integration of nonwhite students. Jean-Louis Bianco, former president of the Observatoire de la laïcité, a body criticised for not presenting a rigorous enough defence of laïcité and eventually dissolved that same summer, summed up widespread disquiet,
2021年夏天，国家教育部制作的一系列海报出现在法国各地的广告空间。他们在各种教育和体育环境中共同展示了白人和非白人学生，口号似乎强调了多样性和世俗主义之间的因果关系。允许Mihan和Aliyah嘲笑同样的故事，这就是世俗主义。”允许Sacha和Neissa在同一个浴缸里，这就是世俗主义”（国家教育部，2021年）。海报似乎表明，这是一种促进非白人学生融合的世俗主义。让-路易斯·比安科（Jean-Louis Bianco），拉西提观察站（Observatoroire de laïcité）前主席，一个因未能对拉西提提出足够严格的辩护而受到批评的机构，最终解散了同一个夏天，这张广为发行的唱片，
{"title":"Confronting the politics of denial","authors":"Nadia Kiwan, J. Wolfreys","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2023.2195622","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2023.2195622","url":null,"abstract":"In the summer of 2021, a series of posters produced by the Ministère de l’éducation nationale appeared on advertising spaces across France. They showed white and nonwhite students together in various educational and sporting settings with slogans that appeared to highlight a causal link between diversity and laïcité. ‘Permettre à Mihan et Aliyah de rire aux mêmes histoires, c’est ça la laïcité.’ ‘Permettre à Sacha et Neissa d’être dans le même bain, c’est ça, la laïcité’ (Ministère de l’Éducation nationale 2021). The posters appeared to be saying that it was laïcité that facilitated the integration of nonwhite students. Jean-Louis Bianco, former president of the Observatoire de la laïcité, a body criticised for not presenting a rigorous enough defence of laïcité and eventually dissolved that same summer, summed up widespread disquiet,","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"139 - 146"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48412979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2023.2171978
Ibrahim Bechrouri
ABSTRACT At the end of 2020, the Macron government decided to dismantle the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF). The CCIF was the primary actor of anti-Islamophobia in France. Its dissolution and the end of its missions in France was a shock for Muslim communities and affected their perception of themselves as well as the trust they put in the rule of law. Macron’s government justified the CCIF’s dissolution in part by arguing that, by denouncing institutional Islamophobia, the organisation incited acts of terrorism against French institutions and its workers. However, the dismantling of the CCIF took place within the larger context of the Macron government’s frustration with the CCIF efforts to question its policies and defend Muslim rights. Thus, the reasons behind the dismantling of the CCIF demand further exploration. After explaining the social function of the CCIF, the events leading to its dissolution as well as its consequences, this paper argues that its dissolution was politically motivated and corresponds with a remodelling of the French colonial counterinsurgency doctrine used to fight against a largely fantasised Islamist separatist insurrection.
{"title":"‘L’esprit de défense’: separatism, counterinsurgency and the dissolution of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France","authors":"Ibrahim Bechrouri","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2023.2171978","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2023.2171978","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT At the end of 2020, the Macron government decided to dismantle the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF). The CCIF was the primary actor of anti-Islamophobia in France. Its dissolution and the end of its missions in France was a shock for Muslim communities and affected their perception of themselves as well as the trust they put in the rule of law. Macron’s government justified the CCIF’s dissolution in part by arguing that, by denouncing institutional Islamophobia, the organisation incited acts of terrorism against French institutions and its workers. However, the dismantling of the CCIF took place within the larger context of the Macron government’s frustration with the CCIF efforts to question its policies and defend Muslim rights. Thus, the reasons behind the dismantling of the CCIF demand further exploration. After explaining the social function of the CCIF, the events leading to its dissolution as well as its consequences, this paper argues that its dissolution was politically motivated and corresponds with a remodelling of the French colonial counterinsurgency doctrine used to fight against a largely fantasised Islamist separatist insurrection.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"199 - 218"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43485130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2023.2176837
Fraser McQueen
ABSTRACT In recent years, the French state has increasingly promoted a model of counterterrorism in which the state outsources responsibility for counterterrorism duties to individual citizens. This model frames such duties as a civic responsibility to be performed by all. Working in conjunction with a vision of jihadi radicalisation borrowing from anthropologist Dounia Bouzar’s understanding of the phenomenon as a ‘dérive sectaire’, this discourse has individualised responsibility for counterterrorism on two levels. Firstly, guilt is individualised: France’s responsibility in creating its own so-called ‘home-grown’ jihadis is obscured, with radicalisation instead framed as entirely down to the cultish influence that malevolent recruiters exercise over vulnerable recruits. Secondly, responsibility for ‘deradicalisation’ is also individualised: citizens are held individually responsible for this work, with the state’s role reduced purely to its carceral functions. This article argues that two recent films depicting young women being ‘radicalised’, Ne m’abandonne pas (Durringer 2016) and Le Ciel attendra (Mention-Schaar 2016), reproduce this highly neoliberal vision of counterterrorism. This is particularly problematic given that both directors framed their films as didactic interventions educating viewers about the ‘realities’ of jihadi radicalisation: a framing widely accepted by reviewers and state representatives, including then Minister for National Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
{"title":"Civilian-led counterterrorism and the carceral state in contemporary French film","authors":"Fraser McQueen","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2023.2176837","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2023.2176837","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In recent years, the French state has increasingly promoted a model of counterterrorism in which the state outsources responsibility for counterterrorism duties to individual citizens. This model frames such duties as a civic responsibility to be performed by all. Working in conjunction with a vision of jihadi radicalisation borrowing from anthropologist Dounia Bouzar’s understanding of the phenomenon as a ‘dérive sectaire’, this discourse has individualised responsibility for counterterrorism on two levels. Firstly, guilt is individualised: France’s responsibility in creating its own so-called ‘home-grown’ jihadis is obscured, with radicalisation instead framed as entirely down to the cultish influence that malevolent recruiters exercise over vulnerable recruits. Secondly, responsibility for ‘deradicalisation’ is also individualised: citizens are held individually responsible for this work, with the state’s role reduced purely to its carceral functions. This article argues that two recent films depicting young women being ‘radicalised’, Ne m’abandonne pas (Durringer 2016) and Le Ciel attendra (Mention-Schaar 2016), reproduce this highly neoliberal vision of counterterrorism. This is particularly problematic given that both directors framed their films as didactic interventions educating viewers about the ‘realities’ of jihadi radicalisation: a framing widely accepted by reviewers and state representatives, including then Minister for National Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"219 - 242"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42178137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2022.2164564
Nadia Kiwan
ABSTRACT Over the last decade, we have witnessed the reinforcement of laïcité as a mode of governance, which increasingly focuses on France’s Muslim citizens. However, rather than argue that the reinforcement of laïcité is a response to a series of Islamist terror attacks since 2015 this article will consider the historical formations of political secularism in modern France and argue that we should take more seriously the historical and conceptual relationship between laïcité and coloniality. The first part of the article will problematize three ideal-type conceptualizations of laïcité from a decolonial perspective. The second part of the article will consider the historical contexts, which have influenced contemporary understandings of laïcité by examining broader processes of colonization and secularization during the 19th century. This approach recognizes that the history of laïcité as a socio-political process predates its juridical expression in the law of 1905 which separated the state and the churches. Finally, in part three, I will outline some ways in which a decolonized conceptualization of laïcité can be an illuminating analytical tool in relation to Islamophobia and political conflicts surrounding the emergence of Muslim and anti-racist feminism via a discussion of the association Lallab.
{"title":"Decolonial approaches to laïcité as a mode to re-think contemporary Islamophobia","authors":"Nadia Kiwan","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2022.2164564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2164564","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Over the last decade, we have witnessed the reinforcement of laïcité as a mode of governance, which increasingly focuses on France’s Muslim citizens. However, rather than argue that the reinforcement of laïcité is a response to a series of Islamist terror attacks since 2015 this article will consider the historical formations of political secularism in modern France and argue that we should take more seriously the historical and conceptual relationship between laïcité and coloniality. The first part of the article will problematize three ideal-type conceptualizations of laïcité from a decolonial perspective. The second part of the article will consider the historical contexts, which have influenced contemporary understandings of laïcité by examining broader processes of colonization and secularization during the 19th century. This approach recognizes that the history of laïcité as a socio-political process predates its juridical expression in the law of 1905 which separated the state and the churches. Finally, in part three, I will outline some ways in which a decolonized conceptualization of laïcité can be an illuminating analytical tool in relation to Islamophobia and political conflicts surrounding the emergence of Muslim and anti-racist feminism via a discussion of the association Lallab.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"147 - 164"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43473992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2023.2195158
M. Hamidi
RÉSUMÉ En France, les débats houleux autour de la question controversée dite du « foulard islamique » ont d’une part divisé les mouvements féministes, et, d’autre part, ils ont mis en évidence les relents racistes et colonialistes des discours tenus par certain(e)s militant(e)s et intellectuel(le)s inconsciemment, ou consciemment influencés par le passé colonial de leur pays, qui oriente par ailleurs leurs idées mais aussi leur rapport aux Européennes descendantes des immigrés des anciennes colonies. C’est dans ce contexte qu’un phénomène interpelant et à contre-courant émerge en France au début des années 2000 : des collectifs de militantes musulmanes engagées dans une perspective islamique et féministe à la fois, pour ensuite laisser place à l’émergence d’un postféminisme musulman dont les mobilisations s’inscrivent au-delà de l’appartenance religieuse et dans une perspective intersectionnelle. Cet article porte sur les tenantes de cette « rhétorique féministe islamique » en actes et en dires et qui sont engagées dans un véritable travail de théorisation de la pensée féministe islamique d’une part, et de l’autre la reconstruction identitaire définissant d’une manière inédite une identité hybride qui combine le féminisme et la religiosité en contexte postcolonial.
{"title":"Françaises, féministes et musulmanes : l’identité impossible ?","authors":"M. Hamidi","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2023.2195158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2023.2195158","url":null,"abstract":"RÉSUMÉ En France, les débats houleux autour de la question controversée dite du « foulard islamique » ont d’une part divisé les mouvements féministes, et, d’autre part, ils ont mis en évidence les relents racistes et colonialistes des discours tenus par certain(e)s militant(e)s et intellectuel(le)s inconsciemment, ou consciemment influencés par le passé colonial de leur pays, qui oriente par ailleurs leurs idées mais aussi leur rapport aux Européennes descendantes des immigrés des anciennes colonies. C’est dans ce contexte qu’un phénomène interpelant et à contre-courant émerge en France au début des années 2000 : des collectifs de militantes musulmanes engagées dans une perspective islamique et féministe à la fois, pour ensuite laisser place à l’émergence d’un postféminisme musulman dont les mobilisations s’inscrivent au-delà de l’appartenance religieuse et dans une perspective intersectionnelle. Cet article porte sur les tenantes de cette « rhétorique féministe islamique » en actes et en dires et qui sont engagées dans un véritable travail de théorisation de la pensée féministe islamique d’une part, et de l’autre la reconstruction identitaire définissant d’une manière inédite une identité hybride qui combine le féminisme et la religiosité en contexte postcolonial.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"259 - 275"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43472033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2023.2191941
Nadia Kiwan, J. Wolfreys, Nacira Guénif-Souilamas
the condi-tions needed to facilitate resistance to such dynamics of marginalisation against a backdrop of the banalisation of Islamophobic discourse. We discuss the gendered dimensions of Islamophobia and the divisions it creates amongst feminist social movements, the obstacles to the emergence of effective intergenerational political anti-racism which integrates the struggle against Islamophobia within its mission and the development of the ‘Islamist separatism’ agenda under Macron’s presidency
{"title":"Nacira Guénif, Nadia Kiwan and Jim Wolfreys, 13 September 2022","authors":"Nadia Kiwan, J. Wolfreys, Nacira Guénif-Souilamas","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2023.2191941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2023.2191941","url":null,"abstract":"the condi-tions needed to facilitate resistance to such dynamics of marginalisation against a backdrop of the banalisation of Islamophobic discourse. We discuss the gendered dimensions of Islamophobia and the divisions it creates amongst feminist social movements, the obstacles to the emergence of effective intergenerational political anti-racism which integrates the struggle against Islamophobia within its mission and the development of the ‘Islamist separatism’ agenda under Macron’s presidency","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"277 - 293"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45039558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-15DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2022.2144184
Siobhán Mcilvanney
ABSTRACT This article examines Leïla Slimani’s 2016 international bestseller Chanson douce through the prism of the work’s portrayal of maternal ambivalence. Such ambivalence is analyzed in relation to the two working mothers represented in the text, Myriam and the nanny Louise, and contextualized within socio-historical, literary and psychoanalytical parameters. The article draws on a wide range of theoretical and ‘applied’ readings of maternal ambivalence, ranging from the writings of Simone de Beauvoir to Rozsika Parker, to suggest that the institution of motherhood continues to be a protected, idolized space that, as Adrienne Rich maintained almost forty years ago, has little in common with the actual experience of motherhood. A close reading of Slimani’s text suggests the need for a more measured response, both readerly and social, to the portrayal of supposedly monstrous maternal conduct. By creating a much-needed literary space that allows for the discussion of some of the less socially approved components and feelings of motherhood, Chanson douce dialogues with other current international cultural representations of maternal ambivalence—whether Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter and its recent filmic version, or Eliane Glaser’s Motherhood. It thereby promotes a more considered, contextualized understanding of the many and often contradictory experiences that make up mothering.
{"title":"Working through maternal ambivalence: the wake-up call of Chanson douce","authors":"Siobhán Mcilvanney","doi":"10.1080/09639489.2022.2144184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2144184","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines Leïla Slimani’s 2016 international bestseller Chanson douce through the prism of the work’s portrayal of maternal ambivalence. Such ambivalence is analyzed in relation to the two working mothers represented in the text, Myriam and the nanny Louise, and contextualized within socio-historical, literary and psychoanalytical parameters. The article draws on a wide range of theoretical and ‘applied’ readings of maternal ambivalence, ranging from the writings of Simone de Beauvoir to Rozsika Parker, to suggest that the institution of motherhood continues to be a protected, idolized space that, as Adrienne Rich maintained almost forty years ago, has little in common with the actual experience of motherhood. A close reading of Slimani’s text suggests the need for a more measured response, both readerly and social, to the portrayal of supposedly monstrous maternal conduct. By creating a much-needed literary space that allows for the discussion of some of the less socially approved components and feelings of motherhood, Chanson douce dialogues with other current international cultural representations of maternal ambivalence—whether Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter and its recent filmic version, or Eliane Glaser’s Motherhood. It thereby promotes a more considered, contextualized understanding of the many and often contradictory experiences that make up mothering.","PeriodicalId":44362,"journal":{"name":"Modern & Contemporary France","volume":"31 1","pages":"361 - 377"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49504602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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