Transforming Family: Queer Kinship and Migration in Contemporary Francophone Literature

287 Pages·2022·4.66 MB·English

by  Jocelyn Frelier

Transforming
Family

TRANSFORMING
FAMILY
QUEER KINSHIP
AND MIGRATION IN
CONTEMPORARY
FRANCOPHONE
LITERATURE
Jocelyn Frelier
University of Nebraska Press Lincoln
© 2022 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska
Chapters 4 and 5 were previously published as “Surrogacy:
Temporary Familial Bonds and the Bondage of Origins
in Fouad Laroui’s Une année chez les Français.” Journal
of North African Studies 24, no. 2 (2019): 300– 26. doi:
10.1080 / 13629387.2018.1435178 and “Chosen Brotherhood
in Abdellah Taïa’s Celui qui est digne d’être aimé.”
Contemporary French & Francophone Studies 23, no. 5
(2019): 610– 16. doi: 10.1080 / 17409292.2019.1747243
All rights reserved
The University of Nebraska Press is part of a land- grant institution
with campuses and programs on the past, present, and future
homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Otoe- Missouria, Omaha,
Dakota, Lakota, Kaw, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples, as well as
those of the relocated Ho- Chunk, Sac and Fox, and Iowa Peoples.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Frelier, Jocelyn A., author.
Title: Transforming family: queer kinship and migration in
contemporary francophone literature / Jocelyn A. Frelier.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
[2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021061593
isbn 9781496225092 (cloth)
isbn 9781496233646 (epub)
isbn 9781496233653 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Families in literature. | French fiction— 21st
century— History and criticism. | Moroccan fiction (French)—
History and criticism. | Algerian fiction (French)— History
and criticism. | Emigration and immigration in literature. |
Transnationalism in literature. | Kinship in literature. | Queer
theory. | bisac: literary criticism / African | literary
criticism / lgbtq+ | lcgft: Literary criticism.
Classification: lcc pq637.f29 f74 2022 | ddc
843/.92093552— dc23/eng/20220523
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061593
Set in Adobe Text by Mikala R. Kolander.
Designed by N. Putens.
To migrants and their loved ones

Contents
Acknowledgments: On Gratitude ix
A Technical Note: On Quotes and Translations xi
Prelude: On the Origins of this Project, or Literary Criticism
as Feminist Autoethnographic Work xiii
Introduction: Trans- Forming Family: Queer Kinship and
Migration in Contemporary Francophone Literature 1
Interlude 1: On Maternity, Motherhood, and Mothering 17
1. Mothering beyond Borders: Transnational Queer Mother
and Child in Nina Bouraoui’s Garçon manqué (2000) 23
2. Queering Motherhood: Bad Mothers and Murderous
Nannies in Leïla Slimani’s Chanson douce (2016) 47
Interlude 2: On Paternity, Fatherhood, and Fathering 79
3. Estranged from the Father: Estrangement Bonds and the
Terrorist Son in Leïla Sebbar’s Mon cher fils (2009) 85
4. Beginning Again: Transcultural Contact and Fatherhood in
Azouz Begag’s Salam Ouessant (2012) 111
Interlude 3: On Horizontal Familial Bonds and Community 141
5. Adoption: Choosing Family and Coming of Age in Fouad
Laroui’s Une année chez les Français (2010) 147
6. Brotherhood: Emancipatory Fraternal Bonds in Abdellah
Taïa’s Celui qui est digne d’être aimé (2017) 179
Postlude: On Hindsight and Finales 213
Notes 217
Bibliography 237
Index 257
Acknowledgments
On Gratitude
I am indebted to many members of my professional community for their
contributions to Transforming Family. The work I did to research this
project, write these pages, and publish this text for readers would not
have been possible without the encouragement of various individuals.
Thank you to Jarrod Hayes, Frieda Ekotto, George Hoffmann, and Peggy
McCracken, who guided me when this monograph existed in dissertation
form and helped me to see a book when I couldn’t. The greater University
of Michigan environment and its various resources—i ncluding the Rackham
Graduate School, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures,
the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, and the Sweetland Writing
Center— supported this project in more ways than I could possibly enu-
merate. I am grateful for the research funds I received from Sam Houston
State University’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, which
made drafting one of these book chapters possible. Thank you, also, to
Jessica Herzogenrath, whose detailed reading of my work paved the way
for a successful peer review. Texas a&m University’s Office for Diversity
supported my revisions with dedicated research time; the quiet afforded
by that time strengthened my project and facilitated the creative process
that led me to include a prelude and interludes throughout the writing.
Thank you to the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research
at Texas a&m University for the Publication Support Grant that defrayed
the cost of this book’s publication. I have enjoyed working with the staff
ix