This dissertation studies the social, political, and literary forces shaping the emergence and evolution of a contemporary French-language writing trend commonly identified as "beur literature." Beginning in the early 1980s, children of North African immigrants to France (called "beurs" in French backslang) have been writing about their experiences as members of both French and immigrant communities. Some of the best-known authors from this population include Mehdi Charef, Azouz Begag, Farida Belghoul, Rachid Djaïdani, Faïza Guène, Tassadit Imache, and Akli Tadjer.

My project focuses on the mainstream media reception of these authors and of their work because this outlet served as a primary entry-point for beur authors in the literary field. As I show, the novels that received the most attention in the media were those situated at the intersection of two currents of thought: that these novels should reflect the social context in which they are written but also contribute an "alternative" to the standard, negative presentations of supposedly "problematic" populations. This dynamic has given rise to a stereotyped reading of beur-authored texts, as reviewers focus on predictable questions of immigration and identity; particularities of individual texts are often subsumed by commonly shared, "trendy" themes.

Through close readings of the novels and of how they were presented in the print and audiovisual media, my research contributes a new understanding of the social and literary construction of one form of contemporary minority writing. I question the relevance of literary labels (including "postcolonial" and "francophone"), since the labels are only applied to works that coincide with preconceived, socially dominant notions of what they identify. I also show how authors today have begun to challenge the narrow reception of their work, thus indicating that they have reached a new phase in their quest for recognition as a new generation of thinkers reconceptualizing French society, from the inside.