Hiding in Plain Sight: Intersectional Violence and Postfeminism in Chanson douce (2016) by Leïla Slimani

Abstract

The first Moroccan woman to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt (in 2016, for Chanson douce), Leïla Slimani is the darling of the French literary world, a poster-girl of Macron’s France. But she is also accused of being a collabeurette, of pandering to white audiences and sensibilities. Chanson douce reveals the true cost of bobo (bourgeois-bohemian) life amongst the metropolitan elite. Exploring the pressures of gendered labour, compounded by economic and social stratification, Slimani holds up a mirror to French society, directly challenging any postfeminist claim that gender equality has been achieved. However, whilst racial – or at least linguistic, national and religious – difference is visible in the text, its presentation is dubious. In this article, I argue that postfeminist logic converges with the colour-blind universalism of France. I suggest that Slimani subsumes discussions of racial difference into a polemic which privileges gender and class inequalities, ultimately seeing her capitulate to French Republican values.