The Body in Francophone Literature ─ Historical, Thematic and Aesthetic Perspectives

At the 2012 annual conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association, held in Rochester, New York, a panel addressed the body as a subject in Francophone literature whose postures and actions respond to ethical, ecological, and cultural frameworks. From that gathering, 11 essays appear here in sections on socializing bodies, performing bodies, and violating bodies. Among their topics are the body of the reader-author: the case of Michel Tremblay, reading botanical metaphors of Creole identity in Patrick Chamoiseau's "L'esclave vieil homme et le molosse," performative bodies in Nina Bouraoui's Garçon manqué, corporeal expressions in Fatou Diome's writing, reading the body politic in the prison writings of Abdellatif Laâbi, and Nelly Arcan: women's bodies and what is left. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

El Hadji Malick Ndiaye is an assistant professor of French and global African studies at Seattle University. He is also a well received poet and critic. Moussa Sow is an associate professor of French and African studies at the College of New Jersey. His most recent publications appeared in the Journal of African Cinemas. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.