French Cultural Studies

Mahi Binebine se veut un veilleur de mémoire qui consacre ses oeuvres aux laissés pour compte, aux victimes de l’innommable. Son roman Cannibales (1999) s’inscrit dans la mouvance d’une littérature qui interroge le drame de l’émigration clandestine et son cortège de cadavres et de rêves brisés. Attirés par le chant des sirènes de l’Eldorado européen, les candidats à l’émigration illégale, gavés d’illusions par les rabatteurs, se lancent à l’assaut de la Méditerranée sur des barques de fortune. Ceux qui ne périssent pas noyés, doivent affronter une amère désillusion et subir, comme Momo, une dévoration qui les vide de leur substance sans pour autant assurer leur intégration aux sociétés d’accueil où ils deviennent les proies favorites des mafias de la traite des êtres humains. Sur les deux bords, les clandestins doivent affronter une indifférence meurtrière qui les renvoie à leur condition d’invisibles, à leur vie de cafards.

Cet article examine la représentation de la mort dans sept romans de Mahi Binebine, Le sommeil de l’esclave (1992), Les funérailles du lait (1994), L’ombre du poète (1997), Cannibales, (1999), Pollens (1999), Terre d’ombre brûlée (2004), et Les étoiles de Sidi Moumen (2010). En s’appuyant sur une approche phénoménologique, l'étude se concentre sur les perceptions et les réactions des personnages face à la mort, explorant ainsi les implications philosophiques et existentielles. Le cheminement méthodologique en six étapes guide l'analyse, mettant en lumière la complexité du thème de la mort et sa relation avec la réalité contemporaine du Maroc. L'auteur émerge comme un visionnaire, capturant les nuances de la condition humaine à travers une écriture qui transcende la simple narration, offrant une réflexion profonde sur la vie, la mort et la société marocaine.

This article discusses literary texts and other cultural practices that resemble, refer to, or make use of material from Google Earth. The aim is to elucidate experiences of glocalization (globalization and localization), an emerging form of spatiality that is related to the interactive ‘Web 2.0.’ The initial analysis of the browser game GeoGuessr and the interactive music video ‘The Wilderness Downtown’ explores this spatiality from two opposing starting points: while the game fosters a sense of place within locales that are essentially unknown to the player, the music video integrates images from places that are related to the viewer's personal memories into an otherwise impersonal work of art. This glocalized experience of place, which is both eroded by global systems of communication and recreated within these systems, is then traced in Marie Darrieussecq's novel La mer à l’envers and in several works, including novels, poems, and photographs, by Michel Houellebecq.

This article offers a critical analysis of “the Fabrègues Affair” (2022), a case of youth violence in which two twelve-year-old girls carried out a series of stabbings, resulting in the death of one of their fathers. What was initially viewed as a simple “family tragedy [drame intrafamilial]” ballooned into a national conversation when the girls claimed, after their arrest, that their violent act had been inspired by “creepypasta,” crowdsourced online horror fictions and videos. While the crime, in its purported relation to digital forms of storytelling, appears eminently specific to the present moment, and while news coverage consistently emphasized the girls’ femininity and sexual orientation in an apparent attempt to further sensationalize their act, the conventional wisdom, as it appears in media coverage of the case, exposes a striking reliance among commentators on outdated psychoanalytic models that do not attend to the specificities of the moment, or to questions of gender and sexuality. This article explores how theories of the relationship between imitation and aggression have been applied in “the Fabrègues Affair” before proposing alternative feminist approaches to understanding the social phenomenon of violent behaviors among girls who appear to draw inspiration from imaginary monsters. In doing so, it aims to contribute new perspectives, drawn from feminist theory and horror studies, to girlhood and childhood studies in the contemporary French context.

This paper investigates the diplomatic ties between Chosŏn and France during the Kaehwagi period, an enlightenment era in the Chosŏn Dynasty, through a comparative study of historical novels by Korean writers Kim T’akhwan and Sin Kyŏngsuk. Both authors feature Li Tsin, the first woman of her time to travel to Europe, who undergoes a transformative journey from a conservative Chosŏn lady to a modern, independent figure under the influence of French culture. The paper examines how Li's story reflects the complexities of a society caught between imperial powers and the role of modern Western culture in Korea. By analyzing the perspectives of major contemporary Korean writers on the notion of “the Other,” which represents the West and French modern culture, the study explores the significance of Li Tsin's life experiences and their impact on Korea's perception of the West. The paper aims to uncover the post-Eurocentric perspectives that have persisted from the Kaehwagi period to the present, and how the contemporary culture of France allowed for independent reflection, breaking romantic conventions and enabling an autonomous reception of French culture in Korea.