From Utopia to a Hostile Space: France in "L’Éducation d’une fée" et "Nation par Barbès"

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show how foreign female characters evolve in Didier Van Cauwelaert’s L’éducation d’une fée and Cécile Wajsbrot’s Nation par Barbès. The characters César and Aniela are involved in a personal process of cultural sensitivity. This process begins by distancing themselves from their own culture, and leads them to a preference for French language and culture. Thus, France represents liberation from their native countries, a desired space and identity, from a stereotypical point of view. Nevertheless, when the characters achieve their utopia they will be welcomed into a multicultural society as foreigners. In fact, they will become two foreigners struggling for their passion for French language within a hostile reality represented by supra-modernity microcosms.