Family Time: The Bonds and Bondage of Transnational Francophone Kinship

This dissertation examines cultural depictions of immigrant families that lie at the intersection of the Francophone Maghreb and France. Throughout, it conceives of a transnational/cultural family that stretches the boundaries of previous notions of kinship. Some of these families have immigrated from North Africa to Europe, others have roots in North Africa and seek to return from their time in a "host" country to the "homeland," and a third category finds itself split or divided by the Mediterranean Sea. This study reads these families using the vocabulary of bonds and bondage to conceive of relationships differently and move past previous binaries of family vs. not family, normal vs. abnormal, assimilated vs. unassimilated, etc. These ideas that can be found in more detail in the project's introduction. Chapter one examines Nina Bouraoui's La voyeuse interdite (1991) and argues maternally-enforced forms of gendered bondage are disguised as gender bonds. The novel's protagonist seeks solidarity to avoid the slippage between bond and bondage at three sites of rupture in her relationship with her mother: birth, menstruation, and marriage. Chapter two focuses on divorce and paternity in Azouz Begag's Salam Ouessant (2012). Here, the protagonist struggles to form intimate bonds with his daughters because he is impeded by his intersectional position as a North African, immigrant, masculine man and experiences with saudade. Chapter three is dedicated to an analysis of Fouad Laroui's coming-of-age story, Une année chez les Français (2010). It posits that this Bildungsroman complicates the relationship between "family" and "familiar" and concludes that the bonds the protagonist forms in his surrogate family remain inadequate, due to the bondage of his origins, despite how familiar they may feel. Chapter four takes up Leïla Sebbar's Mon cher fils (2009) and reimagines familial estrangement. Instead of portraying estrangement as the product of a "lack," the novel requires that it be understood as a force that exerts pressure on the lives of the characters. Finally, the epilogue examines previous theories of becoming, including those of Simone de Beauvoir, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and Rosi Braidotti. It ties the notion of becoming to the rest of the dissertation and asks what it means to become family.PHDRomance Languages & Literatures: FrenchUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144117/1/frelier_1.pd

Surrogacy: Temporary Familial Bonds and the Bondage of Origins in Fouad Laroui’s Une année chez les Français

Embargo ends September 1, 2020Previously published in the Journal of North African StudiesThis article examines Fouad Laroui’s 2010 novel, Une année chez les Français, and charts the protagonist’s development to argue that it offers a new model for Moroccan coming-of-age in a postcolonial context. While Une année is a Bildungsroman, it breaks away from patterns seen in the genre before it to illustrate the possibilities of creating ‘Third Spaces’ (Bhabha 1990). The protagonist, Mehdi, arrives at his moment of ‘apprentissage’ thanks to his pseudo-adoption by a French family and French boarding school, where he experiences what I have termed a pull-push sensation. I outline the sources and effects of the pull-push Mehdi perceives and then turn to argue that these experiences allow him to destabilise the relationship between the concepts of family and familiarity. It is through his newly found understanding that what is familiar is not always family and what is family does not always feel familiar that Mehdi is able to articulate the third space he desires for himself and come of age. While this article focuses on the experiences of a single, fictional character, Une année chez les Francais introduces readers with a framework for imagining the identity-formation of a multiplicity of individuals who have grown up at the intersection of postcolonial North Africa and continental France.World Languages & Culture

Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Citrus

Citrus trees are members of the Rutaceae family, also known as the Rue family, which includes mostly flowering woody trees and shrubs. Trees in this family produce citrus fruits, including popular crops for Louisiana, such as satsumas, oranges and kumquats (see Figure 1). Citrus trees cannot survive in areas that regularly freeze, so production is concentrated along the Gulf Coast, particularly in southern areas of Louisiana and Florida.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/susgard/1005/thumbnail.jp

Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Cantaloupe and Watermelon

Cantaloupe and watermelon are members of the Cucurbitaceae family, also known as the gourd family. This family includes crops such as cucumbers, summer and winter squash, and gourds. Melon is a general term for a fruit produced by various members of this plant family and refers to netted and non-netted fruits, including the cantaloupe, muskmelon, honeydew and Asian melon. Cantaloupes are often referred to as muskmelons. Musk is a Persian word meaning “perfume,” which refers to the fruit’s musky, sweet fragrance. Most Americans use the word cantaloupe rather than muskmelon to describe this fruit.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/susgard/1006/thumbnail.jp

Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Strawberries

Strawberries are part of the Rosaceae family, also known as the rose family, which includes the ornamental rose, along with apples, almonds, blackberries, cherries, pears and raspberries. Members of this plant family include woody shrubs or trees, although strawberry plants are more herbaceous with a low-growing habit. Strawberry’s scientific name, Fragaria x ananassa, includes an ‘x’ to indicate its hybrid nature, in this case, of two different species.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/susgard/1012/thumbnail.jp

Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Broccoli and Cauliflower

Broccoli and cauliflower are herbaceous plants (meaning they have nonwoody stems) and are widely adapted throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world. They are closely related members of the Brassicaceae family, also known as the cabbage family, which includes other cool-season cole crops like cabbages, Brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, collards and radishes. Cole crops can tolerate frost, are generally hardy and mature in cool weather. The name broccoli came from the Italian word “brocco,” meaning “shoot,” which refers to sprouting broccoli. The name cauliflower is believed to have been derived from the Italian word “cavolfiore,” meaning “cabbage flower.”https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/susgard/1008/thumbnail.jp

Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Eggplant

The eggplant is a member of the Solanaceae family, also known as the Nightshade family, which includes crops such as the Irish potato, tomato, tomatillo and pepper. The eggplant is thought to have originated in Asia (mainly parts of India and Burma/Myanmar), and the first record of this vegetable was from a 5th century Chinese book. The original eggplant was a wild plant with orange, pea-sized, spiny fruit — very different than the present-day eggplant!https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/susgard/1003/thumbnail.jp

Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Snap Beans, Bush and Pole

Snap beans are legumes and members of the Fabaceae family, also known as the Pea family, which includes other warm-season beans, peas, lentils and peanuts, along with many other plants, shrubs and trees. This crop is thought to have originated in the Latin American countries of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. Snap beans thrive in these sandy clay soils and have been grown in Mexico for over 7,000 years. However, there is evidence that snap beans may have been cultivated much earlier in Peru, as seeds were found with a mummified woman buried with pre-Incan artifacts.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/susgard/1014/thumbnail.jp