Thesis (MA (Modern Foreign Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The publication in 1983 of Medhi Charef’s novel Le thé au harem d’Archi Ahmed
marked the beginning of Beur literature, a collection of narratives concerning the lives
of individuals of North African origin in the French suburbs. The term “beur”, derived
from the double inversion of the word “arabe”, would become synonymous with
“Maghrebians” and be used to define a cultural movement claiming its uniqueness.
Beur writers or those who make use of Beur heroes in their novels reveal, often in
autobiographical form, the daily experiences of a marginalized minority living in
identical socio-economic conditions, which are sources of conflicts, whether latent or
manifest, with the dominant culture. The sensitivity of Beur writers as manifested in
their writings enables us to obtain images of the lives of people living in shantytowns
or the large conglomerations on the outskirts of French cities. However, this literature
provides more than just a simple description of context or situation, since it also
contains the verdict of young Beurs on the legitimacy of the established social order
and their strategies to transform or to adapt to this order. Work, home, school, politics
or affective relations are concrete examples of areas where the individual is faced with
an established system of values and norms, inequality of resources and convergent or
divergent interests that need to be taken into account during the process of exchange
in order to satisfy his/her needs. In this interdisciplinary research we apply the
sociological concepts of exchange and conflict theory in order to disclose the
strategies used by characters in Beur novels to adapt or free themselves from given
conditions of exchange and power configurations on different social markets of
exchange.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1847 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Staebler, Marie-Anne |
| Contributors | Du Toit, Catherine, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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