Writing in a Cosmopolitan Age: Considerations of Ethnicity and Transculturalism in Sino-French Literature

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn recent decades, French literature has turned from a national to a transnational model, making way for theories that emphasize correlations between a culture's literary productions and such political and social processes as immigration and globalization. This article explores how Chinese diasporic and exile literature fits into this new transnational paradigm, particularly Sino-French literature. First, the article discusses the surprising contradiction of Sino-French novels: that on one hand, these novels’ transcultural features infuse contemporary French literature with cosmopolitanism, while on the other hand, their preponderantly ethnic model reinforces the preeminence within the cultural diaspora of the Chinese nation. Second, I argue that the intrinsically metaphorical nature of the Chinese language is an essential factor in Sino-French novels’ creation of a new literary language. This new language is highly valued by the French literary establishment and has greatly contributed to the institutionalization of this literature.