A round up of the different aspects related to the inclusion of literature and the writer as part of the national identity, La fabrique de l´écrivain national by Anne-Marie Thiesse can be used as a support handbook for the various cultural identity processes from the 18th century onwards.
Literature and its creators, the writers, are an important part of the re-writing, reconstruction and (re)creation of identity narratives. Either in France or the USA, in the Middle East or Africa, the writer is assigned an institutional role in the identity building process. A role which means not only being assigned a prestigious role and the incumbend priviledges but equally restrictions and limitations. Once the writer is bold enough to touch upon - even with the softest critical take required by the intellectual status itself, the national narrative is not only ready to expell him or her, but also to accuse him or her of treason. Which means often the expelling from the national historical narrative.
The book is rich in arguments and situations as well as in information that help to trace long-take historical processes. However, the focus is rather on the chronological mapping of the phenomenon than on the critical evaluation. Equally, it does not refer extensively on the eventual relationship between what does it mean being a writer with the intellectual status, particularly as a critical take on contemporary facts - Dreyfus case, anyone.
Therefore, it contributes to the debate by the systematic outline instead of pushing forward new interpretations and critical points of view.
No comments:
Post a Comment