France is a bellwether for the postcolonial anxieties and populist politics emerging across the world today. This book explores the dynamics and dilemmas of the present moment of crisis and hope in France, through an exploration of recent moral panics.
Taking stock of the tensions as they have emerged over the last quarter of a century, Paul Silverstein looks at urban racial violence, female Islamic dress and male public prayer, anti-system gangster rap, and sporting performances in and around which debates over France’s multicultural future have arisen. It traces these conflicts to the unresolved tensions of an imperial project, the present-day effects of which are still felt by many.
Despite the barriers, which include neo-nationalist racism and Islamophobia, French citizens of various backgrounds have found ways to build flourishing lives. Silverstein shows how they have responded to urban marginalisation, police violence and institutional discrimination in remarkably creative ways.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Glossary
Introduction: Whither Postcolonial France?
1. Mobile Subjects
2. How Does It Feel to Be the Crisis?
3. The Muslim and the Jew
4. Dangerous Signs: Charlie Hebdo and Dieudonne
5. Anxious Football
6. Tracing Places: Parkour and Urban Space
7. Hip-Hop Nations
Conclusion: Postcolonial Love
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Paul Silverstein is Professor of Anthropology at Reed College, USA. He is author of Postcolonial France (Pluto, 2018) and Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race and Nation (Indiana UP, 2004). He writes on identity politics, postcoloniality, and diasporic popular culture in France and North Africa.
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