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

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_5679
dc.title	The Politically Incorrect and Its Limits in Late Twentieth-Century Youth Literature. Rome, l’Enfer by Malika Ferdjoukh
dc.contributor.author	Servoise Sylvie
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/english-literature/2021/1/the-politically-incorrect-and-its-limits-in-late-t/
dc.description.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.
dc.relation.ispartof	English Literature
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 8 \| December 2021
dc.issued	2022-03-16
dc.dateAccepted	2021-11-16
dc.dateSubmitted	2021-05-08
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2420-823X
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2021/08/010
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Children’s literature
dc.subject	French youth literature
dc.subject	Immoralism and amoralism
dc.subject	Malika Ferdjoukh
dc.subject	Political correctness

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

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

Keywords: Malika Ferdjoukh • Children’s literature • Immoralism and amoralism • French youth literature • Political correctness

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2021/08/010

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.

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