France

Abstract

This chapter examines and contextualizes important cornerstones of the Arab Diasporic novel in France. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French fascination with the Arabic language and civilizations of the Mashriq was part and parcel of Orientalism. As French writers and intellectuals traveled to the Mashriq, in Egypt the Nahḍa movement in its cultural and literary dimensions drew inspiration from French literature. The chapter first considers the historical and institutional forces that created and influenced the Arab Diasporic novel in France before turning to early Francophone novels. Three categories of writers are discussed: Maghribi Francophone writers who either lived extensively or settled permanently in France in the 1950s–1970s; bilingual and multicultural novelists of exile from Egypt and Lebanon; and second-generation Maghribi writers whose writing appeared in the 1980s.