What Literature Can Tell Us about Domestic Terrorism in Europe

The George Washington University Professor Kathry Kleppinger focuses on several novels written by the descendants of North African immigrants to France. These semi-autobiographical works portray the daily frustrations such youths face, from discrimination and racism to unemployment and poor access to education. Kleppinger shows that many of the social problems visible in France and in Europe more broadly are tragically foreshadowed in these works. She discusses a small corpus of novels ranging from 1983 to the present to show how the social and political treatment and position of Arab immigrants in Europe have changed over time. Kleppinger supplements the discussion of the novels with relevant historical and social contexts, and looks at how the humanistic study of literature is both informed by, and can supplement more, traditional political and sociological studies.

Kathryn Kleppinger is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at The George Washington University, where she specializes in contemporary French culture and identity politics. She is the author of several articles on recent novels written in French by authors from North and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is also the author of “Branding the Beur Author: Minority Writing and the Media in France, 1983-2013” (2015, Liverpool University Press.)