Fraser McQueen | University of Bristol (original) (raw)

Journal Articles by Fraser McQueen

Research paper thumbnail of Civilian-led counterterrorism and the carceral state in contemporary French film

Modern & Contemporary France, 2023

In recent years, the French state has increasingly promoted a model of counterterrorism in which ... more In recent years, the French state has increasingly promoted a model of counterterrorism in which the state outsources responsibility for counterterrorism duties to individual citizens. This model frames such duties as a civic responsibility to be performed by all. Working in conjunction with a vision of jihadi radicalisation borrowing from anthropologist Dounia Bouzar’s understanding of the phenomenon as a ‘dérive sectaire’, this discourse has individualised responsibility for counterterrorism on two levels. Firstly, guilt is individualised: France’s responsibility in creating its own so-called ‘home-grown’ jihadis is obscured, with radicalisation instead framed as entirely down to the cultish influence that malevolent recruiters exercise over vulnerable recruits. Secondly, responsibility for ‘deradicalisation’ is also individualised: citizens are held individually responsible for this work, with the state’s role reduced purely to its carceral functions. This article argues that two recent films depicting young women being ‘radicalised’, Ne m’abandonne pas (Durringer ) and Le Ciel attendra (Mention-Schaar 2016), reproduce this highly neoliberal vision of counterterrorism. This is particularly problematic given that both directors framed their films as didactic interventions educating viewers about the ‘realities’ of jihadi radicalisation: a framing widely accepted by reviewers and state representatives, including then Minister for National Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.

Research paper thumbnail of Ex-musulmans and Musulmans Laïques in Contemporary French Literature and Film

Contemporary French Civilization, 2022

Although several public apostates from Islam are well known in France, most are not French. More ... more Although several public apostates from Islam are well known in France, most are not French. More attention is granted to French musulmans laïques–practising Muslims who underline their support for a contemporary model of laïcité holding that religious practices should be restricted to the private sphere. Olivier Arnaubec’s novel 2023. Le mur (2015), Xavier Durringer’s film Ne m’abandonne pas (2016), and Zahwa Djennad’s novel Tabou. Confession d’un jeune de banlieue (2013) reflect this, each deploying musulman laïque protagonists to communicate divergent visions of French Islam, while mentioning the figure of the apostate at most in passing. This may be because the figure of the secular Muslim can easily be appropriated to support the creator of each work’s differing vision of the place of Islam in French society. Musulman laïque protagonists help further Arnaubec’s racist rejection of populations racialized as ‘Muslim;’ the more insidious form of Islamophobia associated with the political mainstream seen in Durringer’s film; and Djennad’s portrayal of Islamic practice as already wholly French without needing further ‘assimilation.’ This article argues that the figure of the ex-Muslim is harder to appropriate to any of these ends: a difficulty which helps to explain the discrepancy in public prominence between the musulman laïque and the apostate in contemporary France.

Research paper thumbnail of Christophe Guilluy's France Périphérique and the absence of race from Michel Houellebecq's Sérotonine

Modern and Contemporary France, 2021

Sérotonine (2019) is Michel Houellebecq’s most overtly politically engaged novel to date: the nov... more Sérotonine (2019) is Michel Houellebecq’s most overtly politically engaged novel to date: the novel’s content and the framing strategies that Houellebecq employed at the time of its publication converge to encourage readers to interpret the views expressed therein as Houellebecq’s own. This holds particularly true in relation to the apparently genuine concern that Sérotonine exudes for the regions of France that geographer Christophe Guilluy labels ‘la France périphérique’. Reading Houellebecq’s novel alongside the work of Guilluy, for whom Houellebecq has expressed respect, also helps to explain the surprising absence of protagonists who express racist views against French citizens of postcolonial immigrant descent, or depictions of race-related conflict, from Sérotonine. That absence does not imply a corresponding absence of racism. Rather, excluding non-white French populations from his narrative allows Houellebecq to echo Guilluy by implicitly excluding them from both the marginalized communities for which his novel expresses such concern and, more broadly, the category of ‘French’.

Research paper thumbnail of Zombie Catholicism Meets Zombie Islam: Reading Michel Houellebecq's Soumission with Emmanuel Todd

Forum for Modern Language Studies, 2020

Following the publication of Michel Houellebecq's novel Soumission (2015), which depicts the Fren... more Following the publication of Michel Houellebecq's novel Soumission (2015), which depicts the French public electing an Islamist government in 2022, some critics accused Houellebecq of Islamophobia; others defended his novel as primarily an attack on the French intellectual class rather than Islam or Muslims. Reading Houellebecq's novel alongside the work of French historian and anthropologist Emmanuel Todd, this article suggests that Soumission attacks all three. Furthermore, Houellebecq's depiction of France being 'Islamized' does not represent a break from his earlier insistence that religion is becoming obsolete; the Islam of Soumission is devoid of the positive values that Houellebecq associates with religion elsewhere. In the novel, religion has died, as Houllebecq previously claimed it would, with Islam portrayed as a political system compatible with contemporary materialism. The apparent nostalgia for Catholicism in Soumission and elsewhere in Houellebecq's oeuvre does not express Houellebecq's desire to convert to Catholicism but his wish for a strong Catholic church to provide an opponent for French anti-clericalism; he portrays Islam as an unsatisfactory alternative.

Research paper thumbnail of France's 'elites', Islamophobia, and communities of friendship in Sabri Louatah's Les Sauvages

Modern and Contemporary France, 2018

Sabri Louatah’s Les Sauvages (2011–2016) joins an ongoing discussion over the French political cl... more Sabri Louatah’s Les Sauvages (2011–2016) joins an ongoing discussion over the French political class’s relationship with the racial and religious divides in contemporary French society. Louatah portrays the political class as imposing from above a divide between French descendants of Muslim immigrants and their majority-culture compatriots, and suggests that the functioning of the modern state makes this necessary: states are founded upon communities of belonging which require the exclusion of given minorities, and will reimpose that exclusion with force if a more inclusive model of community threatens to emerge. Two readings of how Les Sauvages suggests we should respond to this are possible. One suggests that subjects should reject the state entirely, seeking to form inclusive communities escaping its control. Another suggests that the structures of the modern state should be appropriated to promote inclusion, but that the nature of modern democracy will prevent such action from succeeding completely; as such, traditional political engagement must work in conjunction with more radical attempts to form communities free from exclusion. Both readings, however, hold in common the idea that racial and religious divides are imposed from above and that these divides cannot be completely overcome while working within mainstream political structures.

Book Reviews by Fraser McQueen

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic

Australian Institute of International Affairs, 2024

Book Review of Nabila Ramdani's Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic (2023)

Research paper thumbnail of Interventions 2020

Modern and Contemporary France, 2024

Book review of Andrew Brown's translation of Michel Houellebecq's Interventions 2020 (2022)

Research paper thumbnail of Postcolonial Paris: Fictions of intimacy in the City of Light

Modern and Contemporary France, 2019

Book review of Laila Amine's Postcolonial Paris: Fictions of Intimacy in the City of Light (Madis... more Book review of Laila Amine's Postcolonial Paris: Fictions of Intimacy in the City of Light (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018)

Research paper thumbnail of Branding the 'Beur' author: minority writing and the media in France

Modern and Contemporary France, Apr 18, 2017

Review of Kathryn Kleppinger's Branding the 'Beur' author: minority writing and the media in Fran... more Review of Kathryn Kleppinger's Branding the 'Beur' author: minority writing and the media in France, 1983-2013 (Liverpool UP, 2015)

Media Articles by Fraser McQueen

Research paper thumbnail of Inside Emmanuel Macron’s draconian anti-terrorism law

Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I critique Emmanuel Mac... more Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I critique Emmanuel Macron's proposed counter-terrorism legislation (to be debated in October 2017).

Research paper thumbnail of Burkini, une polémique qui survient au pire moment

The Conversation, 2016

Article de 'The Conversation' traitant de l'interdiction du "burkini" dans plusieurs communes fra... more Article de 'The Conversation' traitant de l'interdiction du "burkini" dans plusieurs communes françaises en août 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of Emmanuel Macron is already showing he is no progressive

The Conversation, 2017

Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I argue against claims ... more Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I argue against claims that Emmanuel Macron should be seen as a 'progressive' politician.

Research paper thumbnail of A horrific accusation against police reignites anger in Paris suburbs

The Conversation, 2017

The Conversation article, dated 21/02/17, on police violence/systemic racism in the suburbs of Pa... more The Conversation article, dated 21/02/17, on police violence/systemic racism in the suburbs of Paris. Published during the 'Affaire Théo', when police officers were accused of raping a young black man during an identity check.

Research paper thumbnail of France's burkini ban could not come at a worse time

The Conversation, 2016

Article from The Conversation on the banning of the 'burkini' in several French towns in August 2... more Article from The Conversation on the banning of the 'burkini' in several French towns in August 2016. Subsequently republished in The New Statesman and Newsweek, and also translated into French.

Conference Presentations by Fraser McQueen

Research paper thumbnail of Colonialism, the Nation-State, and Olivier Arnaubec’s 2023. Le mur (2015)

Conference paper presented at Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference 2019... more Conference paper presented at Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference 2019 (St Giles Hotel London/University of Westminster, 15-16 November 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational Paris and Peripheral France in Michel Houellebecq's Sérotonine (2019)

Conference paper presented at Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Annual ... more Conference paper presented at Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Annual Conference 2019 (University of London Institute in Paris/American University of Paris, 4-6 September 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of Muslim is French: Zahwa Djennad’s Tabou. Confession d’un jeune de banlieue (2013)

Conference paper presented at Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2019 (Royal Holloway U... more Conference paper presented at Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2019 (Royal Holloway University, 1-3 July 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of The Unimaginable Apostate: Olivier Arnaubec’s 2023. Le Mur and Xavier Durringer’s Ne M’abandonne pas

Conference paper presented at 'Disaffiliation, Dis-identification, Disavowal: (Ex-)Muslims and Pu... more Conference paper presented at 'Disaffiliation, Dis-identification, Disavowal: (Ex-)Muslims and Public Apostasy from Islam in Francophone Culture and Politics' (Institute of Modern Languages Research, 5-6 April 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of Scapegoating, the Sacred, and Coexistence: Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in France

Conference paper presented at 'Alienation, Communication, Coexistence' (Scottish Graduate School ... more Conference paper presented at 'Alienation, Communication, Coexistence' (Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Second Year Symposium, Glasgow, 18 June 2018).

Research paper thumbnail of Agents or victims? Racial, religious, and gendered borders in female radicalisation fiction.

Conference paper presented at 'Negotiating Borders in the Francophone World' (Society for Francop... more Conference paper presented at 'Negotiating Borders in the Francophone World' (Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Postgraduate Study Day, University of Birmingham, 1 June 2018).

Research paper thumbnail of Civilian-led counterterrorism and the carceral state in contemporary French film

Modern & Contemporary France, 2023

In recent years, the French state has increasingly promoted a model of counterterrorism in which ... more In recent years, the French state has increasingly promoted a model of counterterrorism in which the state outsources responsibility for counterterrorism duties to individual citizens. This model frames such duties as a civic responsibility to be performed by all. Working in conjunction with a vision of jihadi radicalisation borrowing from anthropologist Dounia Bouzar’s understanding of the phenomenon as a ‘dérive sectaire’, this discourse has individualised responsibility for counterterrorism on two levels. Firstly, guilt is individualised: France’s responsibility in creating its own so-called ‘home-grown’ jihadis is obscured, with radicalisation instead framed as entirely down to the cultish influence that malevolent recruiters exercise over vulnerable recruits. Secondly, responsibility for ‘deradicalisation’ is also individualised: citizens are held individually responsible for this work, with the state’s role reduced purely to its carceral functions. This article argues that two recent films depicting young women being ‘radicalised’, Ne m’abandonne pas (Durringer ) and Le Ciel attendra (Mention-Schaar 2016), reproduce this highly neoliberal vision of counterterrorism. This is particularly problematic given that both directors framed their films as didactic interventions educating viewers about the ‘realities’ of jihadi radicalisation: a framing widely accepted by reviewers and state representatives, including then Minister for National Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.

Research paper thumbnail of Ex-musulmans and Musulmans Laïques in Contemporary French Literature and Film

Contemporary French Civilization, 2022

Although several public apostates from Islam are well known in France, most are not French. More ... more Although several public apostates from Islam are well known in France, most are not French. More attention is granted to French musulmans laïques–practising Muslims who underline their support for a contemporary model of laïcité holding that religious practices should be restricted to the private sphere. Olivier Arnaubec’s novel 2023. Le mur (2015), Xavier Durringer’s film Ne m’abandonne pas (2016), and Zahwa Djennad’s novel Tabou. Confession d’un jeune de banlieue (2013) reflect this, each deploying musulman laïque protagonists to communicate divergent visions of French Islam, while mentioning the figure of the apostate at most in passing. This may be because the figure of the secular Muslim can easily be appropriated to support the creator of each work’s differing vision of the place of Islam in French society. Musulman laïque protagonists help further Arnaubec’s racist rejection of populations racialized as ‘Muslim;’ the more insidious form of Islamophobia associated with the political mainstream seen in Durringer’s film; and Djennad’s portrayal of Islamic practice as already wholly French without needing further ‘assimilation.’ This article argues that the figure of the ex-Muslim is harder to appropriate to any of these ends: a difficulty which helps to explain the discrepancy in public prominence between the musulman laïque and the apostate in contemporary France.

Research paper thumbnail of Christophe Guilluy's France Périphérique and the absence of race from Michel Houellebecq's Sérotonine

Modern and Contemporary France, 2021

Sérotonine (2019) is Michel Houellebecq’s most overtly politically engaged novel to date: the nov... more Sérotonine (2019) is Michel Houellebecq’s most overtly politically engaged novel to date: the novel’s content and the framing strategies that Houellebecq employed at the time of its publication converge to encourage readers to interpret the views expressed therein as Houellebecq’s own. This holds particularly true in relation to the apparently genuine concern that Sérotonine exudes for the regions of France that geographer Christophe Guilluy labels ‘la France périphérique’. Reading Houellebecq’s novel alongside the work of Guilluy, for whom Houellebecq has expressed respect, also helps to explain the surprising absence of protagonists who express racist views against French citizens of postcolonial immigrant descent, or depictions of race-related conflict, from Sérotonine. That absence does not imply a corresponding absence of racism. Rather, excluding non-white French populations from his narrative allows Houellebecq to echo Guilluy by implicitly excluding them from both the marginalized communities for which his novel expresses such concern and, more broadly, the category of ‘French’.

Research paper thumbnail of Zombie Catholicism Meets Zombie Islam: Reading Michel Houellebecq's Soumission with Emmanuel Todd

Forum for Modern Language Studies, 2020

Following the publication of Michel Houellebecq's novel Soumission (2015), which depicts the Fren... more Following the publication of Michel Houellebecq's novel Soumission (2015), which depicts the French public electing an Islamist government in 2022, some critics accused Houellebecq of Islamophobia; others defended his novel as primarily an attack on the French intellectual class rather than Islam or Muslims. Reading Houellebecq's novel alongside the work of French historian and anthropologist Emmanuel Todd, this article suggests that Soumission attacks all three. Furthermore, Houellebecq's depiction of France being 'Islamized' does not represent a break from his earlier insistence that religion is becoming obsolete; the Islam of Soumission is devoid of the positive values that Houellebecq associates with religion elsewhere. In the novel, religion has died, as Houllebecq previously claimed it would, with Islam portrayed as a political system compatible with contemporary materialism. The apparent nostalgia for Catholicism in Soumission and elsewhere in Houellebecq's oeuvre does not express Houellebecq's desire to convert to Catholicism but his wish for a strong Catholic church to provide an opponent for French anti-clericalism; he portrays Islam as an unsatisfactory alternative.

Research paper thumbnail of France's 'elites', Islamophobia, and communities of friendship in Sabri Louatah's Les Sauvages

Modern and Contemporary France, 2018

Sabri Louatah’s Les Sauvages (2011–2016) joins an ongoing discussion over the French political cl... more Sabri Louatah’s Les Sauvages (2011–2016) joins an ongoing discussion over the French political class’s relationship with the racial and religious divides in contemporary French society. Louatah portrays the political class as imposing from above a divide between French descendants of Muslim immigrants and their majority-culture compatriots, and suggests that the functioning of the modern state makes this necessary: states are founded upon communities of belonging which require the exclusion of given minorities, and will reimpose that exclusion with force if a more inclusive model of community threatens to emerge. Two readings of how Les Sauvages suggests we should respond to this are possible. One suggests that subjects should reject the state entirely, seeking to form inclusive communities escaping its control. Another suggests that the structures of the modern state should be appropriated to promote inclusion, but that the nature of modern democracy will prevent such action from succeeding completely; as such, traditional political engagement must work in conjunction with more radical attempts to form communities free from exclusion. Both readings, however, hold in common the idea that racial and religious divides are imposed from above and that these divides cannot be completely overcome while working within mainstream political structures.

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic

Australian Institute of International Affairs, 2024

Book Review of Nabila Ramdani's Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic (2023)

Research paper thumbnail of Interventions 2020

Modern and Contemporary France, 2024

Book review of Andrew Brown's translation of Michel Houellebecq's Interventions 2020 (2022)

Research paper thumbnail of Postcolonial Paris: Fictions of intimacy in the City of Light

Modern and Contemporary France, 2019

Book review of Laila Amine's Postcolonial Paris: Fictions of Intimacy in the City of Light (Madis... more Book review of Laila Amine's Postcolonial Paris: Fictions of Intimacy in the City of Light (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018)

Research paper thumbnail of Branding the 'Beur' author: minority writing and the media in France

Modern and Contemporary France, Apr 18, 2017

Review of Kathryn Kleppinger's Branding the 'Beur' author: minority writing and the media in Fran... more Review of Kathryn Kleppinger's Branding the 'Beur' author: minority writing and the media in France, 1983-2013 (Liverpool UP, 2015)

Research paper thumbnail of Inside Emmanuel Macron’s draconian anti-terrorism law

Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I critique Emmanuel Mac... more Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I critique Emmanuel Macron's proposed counter-terrorism legislation (to be debated in October 2017).

Research paper thumbnail of Burkini, une polémique qui survient au pire moment

The Conversation, 2016

Article de 'The Conversation' traitant de l'interdiction du "burkini" dans plusieurs communes fra... more Article de 'The Conversation' traitant de l'interdiction du "burkini" dans plusieurs communes françaises en août 2016.

Research paper thumbnail of Emmanuel Macron is already showing he is no progressive

The Conversation, 2017

Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I argue against claims ... more Media article for popular news/opinion website The Conversation, in which I argue against claims that Emmanuel Macron should be seen as a 'progressive' politician.

Research paper thumbnail of A horrific accusation against police reignites anger in Paris suburbs

The Conversation, 2017

The Conversation article, dated 21/02/17, on police violence/systemic racism in the suburbs of Pa... more The Conversation article, dated 21/02/17, on police violence/systemic racism in the suburbs of Paris. Published during the 'Affaire Théo', when police officers were accused of raping a young black man during an identity check.

Research paper thumbnail of France's burkini ban could not come at a worse time

The Conversation, 2016

Article from The Conversation on the banning of the 'burkini' in several French towns in August 2... more Article from The Conversation on the banning of the 'burkini' in several French towns in August 2016. Subsequently republished in The New Statesman and Newsweek, and also translated into French.

Research paper thumbnail of Colonialism, the Nation-State, and Olivier Arnaubec’s 2023. Le mur (2015)

Conference paper presented at Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference 2019... more Conference paper presented at Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference 2019 (St Giles Hotel London/University of Westminster, 15-16 November 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of Transnational Paris and Peripheral France in Michel Houellebecq's Sérotonine (2019)

Conference paper presented at Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Annual ... more Conference paper presented at Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Annual Conference 2019 (University of London Institute in Paris/American University of Paris, 4-6 September 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of Muslim is French: Zahwa Djennad’s Tabou. Confession d’un jeune de banlieue (2013)

Conference paper presented at Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2019 (Royal Holloway U... more Conference paper presented at Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2019 (Royal Holloway University, 1-3 July 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of The Unimaginable Apostate: Olivier Arnaubec’s 2023. Le Mur and Xavier Durringer’s Ne M’abandonne pas

Conference paper presented at 'Disaffiliation, Dis-identification, Disavowal: (Ex-)Muslims and Pu... more Conference paper presented at 'Disaffiliation, Dis-identification, Disavowal: (Ex-)Muslims and Public Apostasy from Islam in Francophone Culture and Politics' (Institute of Modern Languages Research, 5-6 April 2019)

Research paper thumbnail of Scapegoating, the Sacred, and Coexistence: Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in France

Conference paper presented at 'Alienation, Communication, Coexistence' (Scottish Graduate School ... more Conference paper presented at 'Alienation, Communication, Coexistence' (Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Second Year Symposium, Glasgow, 18 June 2018).

Research paper thumbnail of Agents or victims? Racial, religious, and gendered borders in female radicalisation fiction.

Conference paper presented at 'Negotiating Borders in the Francophone World' (Society for Francop... more Conference paper presented at 'Negotiating Borders in the Francophone World' (Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Postgraduate Study Day, University of Birmingham, 1 June 2018).

Research paper thumbnail of Islamophobia as a Gendered Phenomenon in French Radicalisation Cinema

Conference paper presented at 'Arts and Humanities Research Through a Gender Lens' (University of... more Conference paper presented at 'Arts and Humanities Research Through a Gender Lens' (University of Stirling Faculty of Arts and Humanities Postgraduate Conference 2018, 25/05/18).

Research paper thumbnail of Colonial stereotypes in female radicalisation fiction: the ambivalence of repetition

Conference paper presented at 'Repetition' (Society for French Studies Postgraduate Study Day, Un... more Conference paper presented at 'Repetition' (Society for French Studies Postgraduate Study Day, University College London, 16 March 2018).

Research paper thumbnail of Reading the conflict surrounding Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in France with René Girard

Conference paper presented at 'Conflict' (Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary Fr... more Conference paper presented at 'Conflict' (Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France & Society for the Study of French History Postgraduate Study Day, Institute of Modern Languages Research, 3 March 2018).

Research paper thumbnail of Dialogues around the place of Islam in contemporary France: Sabri Louatah and Michel Houellebecq

Conference paper presented at 'Dialogues of Power' (St Andrews 28-29 October 2016) on portrayals ... more Conference paper presented at 'Dialogues of Power' (St Andrews 28-29 October 2016) on portrayals of France's political 'elite' in Michel Houellebecq's Soumission (2015) and Sabri Louatah's Les Sauvages (2011-2016).

Research paper thumbnail of (Post)secularism and islamophobia: Reading Michel Houellebecq through Emmanuel Todd

Paper from (Post)secular: imagining faith in contemporary cultures conference (University of Warw... more Paper from (Post)secular: imagining faith in contemporary cultures conference (University of Warwick, 8/6/17 - 10/6/17).

Research paper thumbnail of #noussommes... quoi? French/European Identity in France's Literary Grands Remplacements

Paper from University of Cambridge French Graduate Conference 2017 - #noussommes (5-6 May 2017).