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Enduring Negativity: Representations of Albinism in the Fictional work of Didier Destremau, Patrick Grainville and Williams Sassine

Research output: Book/Report/ProceedingsBook

Published
Publication date02/2011
Place of PublicationOxford
PublisherPeter Lang
Number of pages226
ISBN (print)9783034301794
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Publication series

NameModern French Identities
PublisherPeter Lang
Volume96

Abstract

This study focuses on fictional representations of albinism in the work of the French writers Didier Destremau and Patrick Grainville, and the Francophone Guinean writer Williams Sassine. The focus on selected novels allows for an in-depth study of each narrative and sheds new critical light on these under-studied writers, permitting a comparative discussion of the novels in relation to other writing about albinism. A series of common themes can be found in these novels, which, although present in different combinations and intensities, echo the preoccupations of all fictional writing about albinism. They include a recognition of the problematic relationship between inner and outer reality (in both bodily terms and in relation to notions of inclusion and exclusion), the challenging of accepted categories and designations, and the consequent problematisation of the relationship between Self and Other. Bound up with these issues, of course, are questions of identity and power.