Banlieue narratives: voicing the French urban periphery

This paper summarises the aims of the edited volume. The authors of the six contained in it undertook a critical examination of banlieue narratives in literature, music and film. They looked at different art forms and genres within the rich cultural production that reflects the living conditions and perspectives of banlieue residents. Informed by a broad array of theories ranging from postcolonial thought to sociological approaches as well as cultural and gender studies, their papers examine different types of narratives and explore how these have become vectors of a reflection on nationhood, territorial stigmatization and the contemporary cityscape.