The Hope of a New Narrative: The Nurenebi File by Tefaye Gebreab (review)

Abstract

The text was banned in France, and its Montreal publication in 1974 led to a pronounced interest in “attempting to relate the Quebecois independence struggle to Cameroon’s anti-neocolonial struggle” (163–64). In the fourth chapter, “As through a Canadian Fog: Mort au Canada and Other Moroccan Mysteries,” Tolliver discusses how “Quebecois political effervescence inspired the Canadian novels of Driss Chraïbi (1926–2007), the Moroccan French novelist, in spite of his own scorn for nationalism” (165). She argues that because Quebec—where Chraïbi lived for a time—existed outside the France/Maghreb binary, it provided him with the space necessary to “reimagine human connection as well as his country of origin” (166). Moreover, we read that Chraïbi’s defense of the use of French in Quebec sees him “articulating the northern province’s nationalist struggle for independence” (213). The Quebec Connection: A Poetics of Solidarity in Global Francophone Literatures intelligently rethinks the relationship between Quebec and other parts of the French-speaking world. Its insights will be of interest to scholars of literary and social science backgrounds. Tolliver’s book is one that I undoubtedly recommend.