At the Margins of the Margins

This book provides an analysis of issues of gender in beur (French-born people of North African descent) literary texts and films, its basic contention being that gender is a crucial element in the construction of beur identity. Focusing on the literary and cinematic devices adopted in order to describe and define beur female identity, this study shows how the texts under examination provide effective reinterpretations of Western texts and canons that would be impossible without a deep knowledge of the originals. The use and reinterpretation of auto-biographical narration, fictional narration in the third person, multivocal and polyphonic narration, prove that beur literary texts can be inscribed à plein titre within the Western literary tradition. A similar approach is adopted for cinema, stressing the elements of continuity that tie beur films to the colonial production as well as to the postcolonial non-mainstream production of the second half of 20th century.