Exiles, Outcasts, Strangers Icons of Marginalization in Post World War II Narrative

by Muratore, Mary Jo

• ISBN13: 9781623563547
• ISBN10: 1623563542
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-03-28
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Exiles, Outcasts, Strangers explores how nine different "outsider" authors treat the theme of alienation in one of their major works. All the novels under review were written in a limited time span (1942 to 1987, approximately 50 years), and all are structured around a hero or heroine who remains culturally, ethically or aesthetically distant from his/her narrative counterparts. Works discussed: Albert Camus' L'Etranger; Richard Wright's The Outsider; André Langevin's Poussière sur la ville; Ernesto Sábato's El túnel; V.S. Naipaul's Guerrillas; Elie Wiesel's Le Cinquième fils; Norbert Zongo's Le Parachutage; Gisèle Pineau's L'Exil selon Julia, and Jean Genet's Querelle de Brest.

Author Biography

Mary Jo Muratore holds the Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair of the Humanities at the University of Missouri, USA. She is the author of four books, including Mimesis and Metatextuality in the Neo-Classical Text (1994), which was nominated for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize in French Studies, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Contagions of Conformity in Camus' L'Étranger
2. The Art of Betrayal in Sábato's El túnel
3. Poeticizing Vice: Genet's Querelle de Brest
4. In the Shadows of Significance: The Dissolution of Character in Wright's The Outsider
5. The Exemplum of Empathy in André Langevin's Poussière sur la ville
6. Miscast Utopia: Reversing the Slant of History in Pineau's L'Exil selon Julia
7. Habitat for Inhumanity: The Legacy of Conquest in Naipaul's Guerillas
8. The Enemy Within: The Politics of Self-Destruction in Zongo's Le Parachutage
9. The Scattered Self: The Dislocation of identity in Wiesel's Le Cinquième Fils
Afterword
Appendix
Bibliography