Devenir non-binaire en français contemporain. Sous la direction de Vinay Swamy et Louisa Mackenzie

Abstract

‘J’avais l’impression de vivre ma vie comme une série de compromis linguistiques’ (p. 92), writes Blase A. Provitola, in their compelling and nuanced contribution to this rich, urgent, and timely collective volume. Born of a project motivated, initially, by a question posed by anglophone students of French in American classrooms (‘Comment dit-on “they” en français?’, p. 1), and following on from a symposium in 2018 and a special issue of H-France Salon in 2019, Devenir non-binaire offers an état présent on, and a call for further research into, a series of interconnected questions concerning queer, trans, and non-binary experiences and use of French language. In ten interventions in varying forms and disciplines, the contributors to this volume make visible and interrogate the kinds of compromises evoked by Provitola. As they do so, they unfold further questions as much as they offer prescriptive solutions on subjects ranging from (neo-)pronouns to the perception of voice, the range of adapted systems of orthography and/or punctuation often referred to by the umbrella term écriture inclusive, and political-professional-pedagogical strategies. Several of the contributions have been translated, or adapted, into French, and ‘translation’ in many forms is a recurring concern: between languages, cultures, and modes of existence. What we might consider a broad human question — ‘how do we translate ourselves through language?’ — is brought into sharp and sometimes painful focus by historical, institutional, and attitudinal resistance to non-binary forms of language (and, by implication, ‘the non-binary’, or ‘non-binarité’ (p. 3) more generally) in French and in France. Co-editor Louisa Mackenzie’s essay robustly counters the labelling of developments in gender theory in francophone contexts as a form of (North American) ‘colonisation idéologique’ (p. 155), arguing instead that traversings of borders and boundaries may be experienced as opening, on the contrary, ‘un espace créatif interlinguistique où français et anglais se côtoient ou divergent, pour créer une espèce d’“interlangue”’ (p. 160). The collected chapters of the volume present a diversity of overlapping perspectives: those of lived experience, scholarly research, and of academic professional and social life. Even at the level of the individual, these perspectives are shown to be in flux; at various stages, contributors reflect on the shifts in their own attitudes or uses of language over time. In this way, the print medium — far slower by nature than the online modes of discussion and community-building that the volume also reflects on and engages with — is able to offer a meaningful series of snapshots that heuristically embody the title’s all-important verb: devenir. From the very useful history and conspectus of the current state of polemic around language and gender in French that opens the volume, to the detailed interview with trail-blazing linguist Alpheratz and glossary of terms that conclude it, this polyphonic and vital collection of work will be of interest to students and scholars alike. Pragmatic and utopian by turns, it should be read widely, and could well become a landmark — perhaps better, a signpost — publication in its rapidly evolving field.