Production des auteurs d’origine judéo-maghrébine, une littérature mineure ou minoritaire ?
Literary production of Jewish writers from North African France: a minor or minority literature?

Author(s): Ewa Tartakowsky
Subject(s): Jewish studies, French Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Maghreb; Jewishness; Sephardim; minor literature; postcolonial; Jews from Maghreb; North Africa; judéités; sépharades; littérature mineure; Juifs du Maghreb; Afrique du Nord
Summary/Abstract: The Literature of Jewish writers from North Africa in postcolonial France is a particularly sui¬table example for the analysis of what being in a minority and / or be a minority means. Indeed, the status of the Jews from Maghreb can be viewed in a twofold manner – as a minority from the point of view of legal and customary status and from the demographic point of view. The “minority” or “minor” refers first to the minority position of producers from this population in the global social space. It can give their literature a political-cultural dimension, as explained in the definition given to “minor literature” by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The other aspect of the “minor” or “minority” character – close to the definition of Jacques Dubois – ori¬ginates from the fact that this population of authors consists not only of recognized writers in the literary field but also marginal authors. The “minor” term, in this second case, refers neither to the subversive capacity of the culturally dominated literary production nor to the use of a majority language by a minority. The objective is therefore to verify the relevance of the use of this term referred to a literary production of a minority group inscribed in and in interaction with a national and dominant literature.The Literature of Jewish writers from North Africa in postcolonial France is a particularly suitable example for the analysis of what being in a minority and / or be a minority means. Indeed, the status of the Jews from Maghreb can be viewed in a twofold manner – as a minority from the point of view of legal and customary status and from the demographic point of view. The “minority” or “minor” refers first to the minority position of producers from this population in the global social space. It can give their literature a political-cultural dimension, as explained in the definition given to “minor literature” by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The other aspect of the “minor” or “minority” character – close to the definition of Jacques Dubois – originates from the fact that this population of authors consists not only of recognized writers in the literary field but also marginal authors. The “minor” term, in this second case, refers neither to the subversive capacity of the culturally dominated literary production nor to the use of a majority language by a minority. The objective is therefore to verify the relevance of the use of this term referred to a literary production of a minority group inscribed in and in interaction with a national and dominant literature.

• Details
• Contents