Colonial Discourses of Disability and Normalization in Contemporary Francophone Immigrant Narratives: Bessora’s 53 cm and Fatou Diome’s Le Ventre de ’Atlantique

Authors

Julie Nack Ngue

Abstract

In this paper, I examine recent Francophone immigrant narratives in a disability studies framework to reveal the ways in which colonial discourses of illness and disability on the Black female body haunt contemporary discussions of immigration and integration. While these novels portray female immigrant bodies as subject to constant surveillance and examination within multiple institutions of ‘normalization,’ they also expose oppressive discourses of illness and disability in order to challenge the paradigms of normality and homogeneity which undergird French treatment of immigrants.

Recommended Citation

Ngue, Julie Nack (2007) "Colonial Discourses of Disability and Normalization in Contemporary Francophone Immigrant Narratives: Bessora’s 53 cm and Fatou Diome’s Le Ventre de ’Atlantique," Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 10.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.cortland.edu/wagadu/vol4/iss1/10