Creating Places to Inhabit: “In-between” Self-Expression in France

This chapter underlines the many concepts prefixed by “trans” that inform the work of Begag, Madjidi, and Alcoba. These include the transpersonal, translingual, translocal, transnational, and transcultural aspects of their production, as well as transculturalist elements (the many aspects that actively assert the value of cultural blending and reciprocal cultural influence), as well as some postcolonial intersections. Transmemorial resonances are noted between them and other writers (particularly autofictionalists) and other creative commentators on history and on public or personal memorialisation in France (Régine Robin, Christian Boltanski, Alain Nahum). The role of the reader as a critical partner in the activation and transmission of the authors’ life stories is discussed, along with the fertile terrain for autofiction provided by the teen years, where the self is problematised and extended. These authors’ transcultural dynamic enriches this fertile ground, creating a productive space of ambiguity. All three are socially engaged and see themselves transpersonally, not only in the sense of an identity that is in flux but as part of wider social and historical contexts connected to the lives of others and influenced by them. By attending to translingual experience, their work runs counter to what Philippe Blanchet has called glottophobie. The chapter ends with a note on some recent laws and measures that underline a culturally fearful or universalist socio-political approach in France, including the law on republican values of 24 August 2021 and the immigration law of 26 January 2024.