'L'Invisible Voyeur du Monde des Voyants': Critiques of French Society in Michel Tournier's La Goutte d'or and Guy Hocquenghem's L'Amour en relief

Citation

Barclay F (2006) 'L'Invisible Voyeur du Monde des Voyants': Critiques of French Society in Michel Tournier's La Goutte d'or and Guy Hocquenghem's L'Amour en relief. Language and Intercultural Communication, 6 (3-4), pp. 275-285. https://doi.org/10.2167/laic254.0

Abstract
Since decolonisation, the increase in immigration from France’s former colonies in North Africa has prompted metropolitan writers to reconsider conceptions of French society. In their novels, Tournier and Hocquenghem present contemporary France through the defamiliarising eyes of a North African immigrant who serves as a device for the critique of French culture. This article investigates the opposition between the objectifying culture of the West, and the immigrants’ desert culture. It argues that this opposition is flawed, and that the division is between actual practices of seeing and the cultural discourses around vision.

Keywords
France; immigrants; postcolonial; vision; image; France Social conditions 20th century; National characteristics, French

Journal
Language and Intercultural Communication: Volume 6, Issue 3-4

People

Dr Fiona Barclay

Senior Lecturer, French