ABSTRACTS

Madness and Hybridity in Leila Marouane's _La vie sexuelle d'un islamiste à Paris

Patricia Geesey
(University of North Florida)

In his essay "Pour une littérature-monde en français," Michel Le Bris notes that in the large, modern, multicultural cities of the world, a new world is being born, and that "littérature-monde en français" plays a vital role in analyzing the "human condition" of this new world. Furthermore, Le Bris observes that within this world, "les hybridations se multiplient" (42). Marouane's recent, darkly humorous novel details the acsension and fall of one such hybrid character, the "Bobo beur" Mohamed Ben Mokhtar, alias Basile Tocquard, whose sexual frustrations ("puceau à 40 ans")and whose intense relationship with his mother, threaten to overwhelm his sanity and sense of self. Added to these issues is the difficulty of "passsing" for French in order to move from the banlieue to a chic apartment in St. Germain dès Prés. Leila Marouane is a novelist orginally from Algeria, living in France whose previous works detailed the horrors of the Algerian civil war. In La vie sexuelle d'un islamiste à Paris, she dissects the psychological and social ramifications of living between two cultures and two identities in present-day Paris.