Reparative literary activism : publishing French-language translations in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia

This interdisciplinary thesis combines comparative literature, translation studies, and cultural policy research to explore recent literary translations from Arabic into French produced in the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). While scholarship has long underscored the consecrating power of Parisian institutions, this thesis considers alternative patterns of literary endorsement through translations developed in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. I examine how translation flows in the Maghreb have become an object of French cultural diplomacy, before turning to Maghrebi publishing professionals’ creative and often collaborative strategies to publish translations despite major practical challenges. I propose the term ‘reparative activism’ to encompass translation agents’ commitment to publishing translations locally, alongside their belief in translation’s societal relevance, and their linguistic, editorial and typographical choices to centre local readerships in translation. This thesis adopts a multi-scalar approach combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. I analyse a dataset of French-language translations published in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia compiled during my fieldwork. While Arabic-language Maghrebi literary texts are prominent in this dataset, the latter also reveals how Maghrebi literary translations are entangled with other geographies, comprising France, the Mediterranean and the Gulf. Through 34 interviews with publishers, translators, authors, and cultural cooperation experts, I relate this macro-level of analysis to the itinerary to publication of five selected translations. Exploring how publishers as diverse as [barzakh] (Algeria), Sud Éditions (Tunisia), or Virgule Éditions (Morocco) commit to translating Arabic-language Maghrebi fiction into French sheds light on literary translation’s ability to connect local, partially overlapping multilingual communities in the Maghreb. Close readings show that these translated texts grant ample space to local forms of expression, including plural Frenches and Arabics, hence uncommonly centring multilingual Maghrebi readerships in translation. Ultimately, the thesis demonstrates the reparative and aesthetic potential contained in the display of multiple languages and scripts on the translated page.