Writing at the Margin: An Introduction to the Exile Novels by Andreï Makine, Milan Kundera and Rodica Iulian

Abstract

Andreï Makine, Milan Kundera and Rodica Iulian are three contemporary authors who have come to France from then-Communist countries: the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Romania respectively. Concentrating on the novel, they are all now writing exclusively in French. However, despite this as well as the fact that theirnovels are destined primarily for the local audience, their status on the French literary scene remains ambiguous and their contribution to French literature and cultural lifein general continues to be questioned. For instance, many critics consider the foreigninfluences carried by the non-native writer's work as a threat to the purity of Frenchlanguage. Although others delight in what they see as the continuation or revival ofFrance's cultural hegemony endangered by the domination of English, in either casecriticism usually centres on the author's foreign origins and their mastery of Frenchrather than on the intrinsic quality of their writing.