The Migrant Canon in Twenty-First-Century France by Sabo Oana;

Author:Sabo, Oana; [Sabo, Oana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT004150 Literary Criticism / European / French
ISBN: 5303660
Publisher: UNP - Nebraska
Published: 2018-02-01T16:00:00+00:00

Consecrating Migrant Literature

The Porte Dorée intervenes unlike any other literary prize before it in the dynamics of French cultural memory. Although it may seem a belated addition to the French prize system, given the proliferation of literary prizes since the beginning of the twentieth century and the large corpus of French-language migrant texts, the Porte Dorée justifies its necessity in two crucial ways. First, it posits immigration as a constitutive part of France’s national fabric. The prize presents itself as an extension of the immigration museum’s permanent exhibit Repères (Landmarks), which showcases migratory flows to France from 1820 to the present. Even though it rewards contemporary literature, the prize adopts a diachronic approach that stresses the deep historical roots of immigration in the nation-state. Indeed most of the laureates portray contemporary France in light of past epochs and distant lands, thus broadening conceptions of French history and identity. Second, the Porte Dorée invites a reconsideration of contemporary French literature through the lens of immigration. Envisioned as a supplement to the museum’s 2009 anthology Nouvelles Odyssées: 50 auteurs racontent l’immigration (New odysseys: 50 authors narrate immigration), the prize champions the vital role literature plays in representing the phenomenon of immigration in ways that differ from political and media discourses. As Lesne (2011) states, “when literature evokes immigration, it does so in infinitely more intelligent, delicate, and subtle ways than journalists or politicians do” (para. 2). Lesne and jury members stress the singular aesthetic forms through which each of the laureates approaches immigration, thus lending support to Bourdieu’s (1993) idea that belief in the value of a work of art rests on “the (collective) belief which knows and acknowledges it as a work of art” (35). If belief in the aesthetic value of fictional texts rests on the endorsement of literary institutions, the Porte Dorée prize serves as a clear example of the impact such institutions can have on the literary field.

The Porte Dorée instills belief in its power to reward aesthetic value through the laudatory rhetoric of its book reviews and promotional materials, as well as through a carefully orchestrated selection process that overplays the fierce literary competition among prize entrants. For example, Julien Delmaire, the president of the jury that elected Prudhomme’s Les Grands for the 2015 prize edition, legitimated the novel’s aesthetic value by stating that “[t]his novel is anything but a trendy cultural product[;] it’s a work of art that deserves long-term consecration.”6 As a prize for the best book of the year, chosen from a selection of novels published every editorial year, it creates hierarchies of value within the migrant literature category itself. Each year French publishing houses submit between forty and sixty novels about immigration to a reading committee composed of members of the Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration and lay readers: historians, teachers, librarians, and the like. This committee then selects eight to ten novels, and from that group the jury chooses a winner. The laureate and other nominees attend the award ceremony, held in June, to discuss, promote, and sign their books in the Palais de la Porte Dorée.

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