Family History as a Transcultural Paradigm. A Postmigrant Approach to “Ajar–Paris” and “Là où les chiens aboient par la queue”

Abstract

This article opens a dialogue between postmigration studies and transcultural studies. After briefly outlining the postmigration turn, it applies this perspective to the Francophone novels Là où les chiens aboient par la queue by Estelle-Sarah Bulle and Ajar–Paris by Fanta Dramé. It argues that narrating family histories fosters the emergence of a transcultural counter-imaginary of France, reshaped by immigration. After having identified the “migrantology” that these novels challenge, the analysis shows how the protagonists generate knots of memory linking France’s history to multiple places and cultures. On this basis, it contends that the families depicted in the novels offer a transcultural paradigm for imagining a fluid sense of belonging to France, grounded in partial connections across diverse cultures.