ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the contemporary scepticism towards the unifying power of 'community' across a variety of genres. It constitutes a critique of Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy's work on community. The book then examines how the deconstruction of communal identification implies an absence of consensus, a continual movement away from normative frameworks, which serves to rescue the singular being from oppression by discourses of cultural unity. It also explores how recent interrogations of community are founded upon a new understanding of difference. The book analyses the portrayals of collective identity and difference in texts by Ben Jelloun and Rachid Boudjedra that describe the process of immigration and arrival in France. It then explores how the texts of Leila Sebbar couple reflections on exile with a drive to embrace plurality and cultural mixing.
