Rethinking Reading, Writing, and a Moral Code in Contemporary France

High Culture is the symbolic culture inherited from classical literature that is transmitted to French children by the “Schools of the Republic” in the form of citations and clichés that represent a conventional cultural capital. The book follows the process of learning how to read and write in French primary and secondary schools as it is represented in the fiction written by authors whose experience was that of pupils born from North and sub-Saharan African immigrant parents during the 1960-2000 period. Autobiographical novels by ‘beur’ and Afro-French authors (1980s and 1990s respectively) and one film by Merzak Allouache (1996) disclose some of the strategies for learning how to read and write that challenge the conventions of a State-controlled school system inherited from the Third Republic during colonial times. From the experience of Kassa Houari’s self-initiation to French literature in his autobiographical text, to revaluating cultural clichés in and out of school by Zaïr Kedadouche, Azouz Begag or Calixthe Beyala, a postcolonial mentality emerges from the literature of a post-1980s multicultural France where Orality plays a key role in reinterpreting clichés from High Culture and informs a new moral Code. Rethinking Reading, Writing, and a Moral Code astutely suggests a need for the school system to rethink its didactic approach to teaching language and literature, if French education is to reflect the postcolonial character of contemporary cosmopolitan culture and facilitate the integration of communities of diverse ethnic origins.

This is a translation by Laronde of his sociocritical study Postcolonialiser la haute culture à l’école de la république. Laronde explores the interplay between education in the public school system of France, immigrant literature, and French high culture.  His focus is particularly on instruction in reading and writing and the assimilist goal of the French educational establishment to transmit a common cultural base, in particular through the memorization of literary excerpts referred to here as cultural ‘clichés.’  Relying heavily on the concept of the ‘parasite’ elaborated by the philosopher Michel Serres, Laronde examines the ways in which immigrant literature and film take these clichés and ‘deterritorialize’ (Laronde’s term) them, thus creating an impact on the dominant culture of France, a process that Laronde describes as ‘postcolonializing.’  The study is very thought provoking and will be of special value to those interested in the interplay between immigrant literature and the culture of the host country.   Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty., Michel Laronde is widely recognized as an authority on French immigration literatures. Translated from the original French, his newest book on contemporary Arabo-French and Afro-French narratives underscores the ways in which these literatures challenge the ‘universal’ cultural tropes inculcated in France’s increasingly multicultural youth by French National Education. Grounded in the notion of ‘school clichés,’ Laronde’s analysis investigates how postcolonial authors decenter literary stereotypes through the acts of reading and writing about canonical literature—the very acts that initiated these authors into French culture in primary school. Laronde skillfully demonstrates that, despite its attempts to reduce cultural difference, French National Education nevertheless creates a space for social criticism and cultural diversity. An important book that will undoubtedly constitute a major reference for students and scholars of Francophone and postcolonial literatures., In this accessible and skillfully crafted study, Michel Laronde provides an important English language contribution to understanding the evolutions of modern France through its immigration literatures. Using clear examples from a wide corpus of works, Laronde carefully defines and problematizes key terms relevant to contemporary French studies while critically questioning the evolution and progression of French culture and the impact of immigrant literature. This is an important resource for anyone interested in migrant literature and its interplay with the host nation., Rethinking Reading, Writing, and a Moral Code in Contemporary France: Postcolonializing High Culture in the Schools of the Republic is the timely translation by Michel Laronde of his Postcolonialiser la Haute Culture à l'Ecole de la République. This insightful book astutely examines the ways in literary and filmic texts by postcolonial subjects from immigrant communities in France reinterpret and re-locate references to the classical literary models used in French schools to teach dominant linguistic and cultural values. I have long used Prof. Laronde’s French-language work in my own teaching and research. I welcome this new translation as it will constitute a valuable addition to the corpus of works currently available in English on postcolonial literature and film in French.

Michel Laronde is professor of French and francophone studies at the University of Iowa.