What is it about?
A reading of the 2021 Goncourt Prize-winning novel "La Plus Secrète Mémoire des hommes" by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr through the lens of race and racialization of non-White writers in the history of literature in French. How does race shape ideas of artistic value and institutional recognition of non-White writers, as attested by literary scandals centered around accusations of plagiarism that have long plagued their works?
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Why is it important?
The article engages with an urgent but understudied topic: the unacknowledged impact of race in the color-blind French Republic of Letters, addressing the relations between "French" proper and "other" writers who publish in French. It showcases the power of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's fiction to reimagine and critique this longstanding issue. At the same time, it reassesses the balance between aesthetic intransitivity and political participation in current debates around literature, between the principle of unfettered artistic freedom and literature's constant striving for social relevance.
Perspectives
Readers are invited to consider this article in the wider framework of these references: https://www.babelio.com/livres/Sarr-La-plus-secrete-memoire-des-hommes/1332606 Fictions of Race in Contemporary French Literature: French Writers, White Writing | Oxford Academic (oup.com): https://academic.oup.com/book/56167 https://open.spotify.com/episode/3yyEdMqZmUKHpp6mHcuSa8?si=AFgons1hR7akYI2Q5XtsJw&nd=1&dlsi=26ec81b2fcc44702 CFC Intersections (Vol. 3, September 2024): Decolonizing Literature in French and the Question of the White Writer: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/cfci
Oana Panaïté
Indiana University Bloomington
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Sortir du labyrinthe de l’histoire littéraire (blanche), October 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004710894_022.
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