In this first edited collection in English on the Moroccan author, Abdellah Taia's Queer Migrations frames the distinctiveness of his migration by considering current scholarship in French and Francophone studies, post-colonial studies, affect theory, queer theory, and language and sexuality. In contrast to critics that consider Taia to immigrate and integrate successfully to France as a writer and intellectual, Provencher and Bouamer argue that the author's writing is replete with elements of constant migration, "comings and goings," cruel optimism, flexible accumulation of language over borders, transnational filiations, and new forms of belonging and memory making across time and space. At the same time, his constantly evolving identity emerges in many non-places, defined as liminal and border narrative spaces where unexpected and transgressive new forms of transgressive filial belonging emerge without completely shedding shame, mourning, or melancholy.
Denis M. Provencher is professor of French and Francophone studies and head of the department of French and Italian at the University of Arizona. Siham Bouamer is assistant professor of French and Francophone studies at Sam Houston State University.
Introduction: Reconsidering Abdellah Taia's Queer Migration Denis M. Provencher and Siham Bouamer Part One: On Place and Non-Place 1"Sortir de tous les territoires": To Be a Racialized and Colonized Subject within France Today. Is There for Abdellah Taia a There Where to Go and to Exist? Ralph Heyndels 2Sexual Fluidity and Movements in Abdellah Taia's L'armee du salut: The Birth of a Queer Moroccan Francophone Identity Olivier Le Blond 3Marginal Masculinities: Disidentifying Sexual Performativity Across Abdellah Taia's Novels Daniel Maroun Part Two: Affective Migration 4He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: Cruel Optimism in Abdellah Taia's L'armee du salut Siham Bouamer 5Queerness, Shame, and the Family in Abdellah Taia's Epistolary Writing Ryan K. Schroth 6Mourning and Reconciliation: Anger, Politics, and Love Jean-Pierre Boule Part Three: Postcolonial Temporalities 7Abdellah Taia's Melancholic Migration: Oscillation between Solitude and Multitude Thomas Muzart 8From the "Garcon du bled" to Tintin's Dog: The Interplay between Race and Sex in Abdellah Taia's Un pays pour mourir and Celui qui est digne d'etre aime Philippe Panizzon 9Adbellah Taia's Transflilial Myth Making and Unfaithful Realms of Memory Denis M. Provencher Part Four: New Directions and Conclusions 10The Voices of Reappropriation Antoine Idier 11Des hommes fatigues Abdellah Taia 12 Tired Men Abdellah Taia translated by Denis M. Provencher Conclusion: New Directions for Abdellah Taia and the Field Denis M. Provencher and Siham Bouamer
