FAIRE PARLER LES SANS-VOIX : LES SIESTES DU GRAND-PÈRE. RÉCIT D’INCESTE DE MONIA BEN JÉMIA – ENTRE EXOFICTION D’UNE INCONNUE ET TRANSBIOGRAPHIE AUTOTHÉORIQUE
MAKING THE VOICELESS SPEAK: LES SIESTES DU GRAND-PÈRE. RÉCIT D’INCESTE BY MONIA BEN JÉMIA – BETWEEN THE EXOFICTION OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN AND AN AUTOTHEORETICAL TRANSBIOGRAPHY

Summary/Abstract: Making the Voiceless Speak: Les siestes du grand-père. Récit d’inceste by Monia Ben Jémia – between the Exofiction of an Unknown Woman and an Autotheoretical Transbiography. An explicitly fictional novel about the biography of an unknown person: can it be an exofiction, a transbiography or an autotheory all at once? The answer is clearly no. And yet, as this article shows, there are hybrid forms that oscillate between exofiction, transbiography and autotheory, especially in certain societies, with regard to particularly taboo subjects. Our example is the sexual abuse of children by family members in Tunisia, the topic of the book Les siestes du grand-père. Récit d’inceste (“Grandfather’s Naps: A Tale of Incest”, 2021) by Tunisian lawyer and women’s rights activist Monia Ben Jémia (b. 1958). The article analyses the extent to which this is a covert form of écriture de soi (self-writing) on the one hand, and an emancipatory plea that aims to break taboos and silence on the other.

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