| Description |
France has long been portrayed in a romanticized singular narrative as the country is routinely praised for high culture, enchanting art, and Republican values. However, beneath this gilded surface exists a complex past and present. Multifaceted exclusion forced immigrants into les banlieues, which have been pigeonholed in an opposing narrative of violence and dilapidation. All visible minorities, but especially those who are the descendants of these immigrants, are suffocated by the singular conceptions surrounding France, les banlieues, and French identity. A generation suspended between cultures has grown up on the geographic and symbolic margins of society and been misrepresented and disempowered. Faïza Guène's novel Kiffe Kiffe Demain addresses the convergence of these forces in the lived realities of descendants in les banlieues. Through the journal entries of a teenage girl with a modern liminal identity, Guène eloquently delivers sociopolitical commentary while humanizing these communities, and this depiction of les banlieues has become the subject of most analyses of the novel. While this praise is well-warranted, there is much more to be explored in the pages of this story. In this Honors thesis, I demonstrate the criticality of going beyond singular sociopolitical readings of Kiffe Kiffe Demain to instead engage with the novel holistically and recognize its literary merits. Ultimately, I argue that those with marginalized identities can regain some facets of self-determination through dismantling stereotypes, innovating language, and storytelling. |
