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The Politically Incorrect and Its Limits in Late Twentieth-Century Youth Literature

Rome, l’Enfer by Malika Ferdjoukh

Sylvie Servoise    Le Mans-Université , France    

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abstract

This article reflects on the contours and limits of the extremely complex and unstable notion of ‘politically correctness’ in contemporary youth literature, based on the study of Malika Ferdjoukh’s French novel Rome, l’Enfer. This novel for adolescents, which was published in 1995 by L’Ecole des Loisirs (Medium collection) and which shocked many readers at the time, is in many ways politically incorrect – in terms of the themes addressed (social violence, drugs, etc.), the structure of the story (a descent into hell ending with the death of the young protagonist), and the highly critical discourse on literature, which is allegedly incapable of preparing young people to face the ‘real’ world. Nevertheless, the article will show that this book, which in many ways is ‘politically incorrect’, does not give up its educational purpose.

Published
March 16, 2022
Accepted
Nov. 16, 2021
Submitted
May 8, 2021
Language
EN

Keywords: Malika FerdjoukhFrench youth literatureImmoralism and amoralismChildren’s literaturePolitical correctness

Copyright: © 2021 Sylvie Servoise. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.