Exiles, Outcasts, Strangers: Icons of Marginalization in Post World War II Narrative

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Exiles, Outcasts, Strangers explores how nine different "outsider" authors treat the theme of alienation in one of their major works. All the novels under review were written in a limited time span (1942 to 1987, approximately 50 years), and all are structured around a hero or heroine who remains culturally, ethically or aesthetically distant from his/her narrative counterparts. Works discussed: Albert Camus' L'Etranger; Richard Wright's The Outsider; Andr Langevin's Poussire sur la ville; Ernesto Sbato's El tnel; V.S. Naipaul's Guerrillas; Elie Wiesel's Le Cinquime fils; Norbert Zongo's Le Parachutage; Gisle Pineau's L'Exil selon Julia, and Jean Genet's Querelle de Brest.

Reviews

"The place of the margins in literary discourse stands prominently as a fulcrum of inquiry among twentieth-century writers and contemporary literary scholars. Twentieth-century prose seeks explicitly to forge and sustain a fundamental distance from the center,' which appears both as anathema to contemporary writers and which does not fairly bespeak the predominant vision of l'humaine condition. Within such a frame, Dr. Muratore's masterful study of otherness brings stunning insights and new dimensions to the complex, forever unresolved problematic of alienation, marginalization and apartness. The critic illuminates the work of nine post-World War II novelistseach, by dint of circumstance or destiny, culturally apart, each singularly estranged, and, more compellingly, each the creator of a fictionalized universe in which the protagonist confronts the essence of unhinged lost-ness. Muratore thus offers sophisticated and far-reaching analyses and accompanies the reader on an intriguing series of journeys, each borne of difference,' yet powerfully unified. The literary dances are highly compelling as the book explores that muted but ever-present part of our human prejudiceothernessfrom the perspectives of those on the fringes. Muratore explores the phenomenon with forensic expertise and vigor of thought. Clearly, every reader can relate to the face in the mirror staring back through the haze of self-recognition and the ignominy of attempting to conjure up a panacea for an intractable matter." -- Bethel Erastus-Obilo, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Research, University of Atlanta, USA
"Muratore's work, written with polish and flair, offers an alternate theory of reading, and does so with clarity and depth, void of the convolutions to which we are too often exposed. The critic wields a study of estrangement in numerous texts, while establishing a bond of immediacy with the reader. A stunning discourse of and about textual difference!" -- Jack Jordan, Professor and Department Head, Department of Classical & Modern Languages and Literatures, Mississippi State University, USA
Exiles, Outcasts, Strangers is a unique work of ambitious scope that opens onto an immensely rich area of exploration. In demonstrating the relationship between exile, alienation, and literary self-representation, it brings together an original constellation of related issues that offers a fresh approach to the familiar genre of exile literature. -- Wilson Kaiser, Jacksonville University * Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1, 2015 *
Readers interested in one of these writers will find something interesting in her analysis. The book has extensive notes a good bibliography. Collections with strong holdings in comparative literature and post colonialism will find this slender book a useful...acquisition. * Choice *

Author Bio

Mary Jo Muratore holds the Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair of the Humanities at the University of Missouri, USA. She is the author of four books, including Mimesis and Metatextuality in the Neo-Classical Text (1994), which was nominated for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize in French Studies, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America.