Abstract
This article reflects on the complex notion of the archive and examines the contribution made by suburban cultures in postcolonial France in establishing a different perspective on nation and identity. Since the 1990s, cultural and political characterisations of the suburbs have mainly conveyed an image of the multiethnic housing estates as menacing spaces endangering the cohesion and integrity of France and Frenchness. Through analysis of archival material collected in the suburbs, the article proposes a cultural studies reading of France's national identity crisis, one that posits the archive as a tool to explore suburban cultural practices of banlieue residents. The article concentrates on the creation of an original CD album entitled, On sort les dossiers, conceived in the commune of La Courneuve outside Paris. Positing that archives are apt to take original forms, it demonstrates that in this CD, which functions like an archive, the insistence of the texts on the lived experience of the inhabitants, ...
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