THE REPRESENTATION OF BANLIEUES IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH LITERATURE: A NEW FORM OF ENGAGED REALISM?

This article aims to address the following questions: What form does the representation of the banlieues imaginary take in contemporary French literature, and what position does it occupy within the literary field? Can we speak of a new form of mimesis of reality? To explore these questions, three works have been selected from contemporary French literature that represent this imaginary, each written by a different author: Lydie Salvayre’s Les belles Âmes (2000), Olivier Adam’s Les Lisières (2012) and Mahir Guven’s Grand frère (2017). This selection allows for a sufficiently diverse range of works and author profiles, offering relevant insights. The article will begin by analyzing the media portrayal of the banlieues in France and the collective imaginary constructed around this space. It will then analyze how contemporary novels, including those in our corpus, reconnect fictional narrative with social reality by attempting to "heal" from the antinarrativism of modernity. It will also address the concept of engaged realism present in the three novels, focusing on the question of legitimacy in writing about, for, and on behalf of the banlieues. A final section will be dedicated to the techniques of realism in the corpus, through an analysis of these narrative techniques in the three novels. The conclusion will summarize our research and present observations regarding the answer to the question of the presence of a new peri-urban realism in contemporary French literature.