Post-Migratory Cultures in Postcolonial France ed. by Kathryn A. Kleppinger, and Laura Reeck (review)

Kleppinger and Reeck assemble 13 essays that probe at the relationship between France and her minority populations. An introduction, co-written by the editors, and an afterword, wherein Alec Hargreaves and Mark McKinney meditate on the state of the field and its future, bracket the essays. The anthology sprung from an annual conference in 2016, where Kleppinger and Reeck co-presented on the notion of "Mobilities." The most unique element of this edition's contribution to the field lies in the specificity with which the editors and authors have defined their corpus: they have moved beyond interrogating what we have come to know as the postcolonial world and its immigrant population to, instead, examine the post-migratory: rather than exploring the legacies of empire, this edition concerns itself with the legacies of a Francophone post-empire. The first part of the book, when viewed as a whole, is an interdisciplinary project that examines the complexities of categorization and generational boundaries. Jennifer Fredette focuses on the interventions of minority populations on social media, whereas the next two essays are more traditional studies of cultural production. Kaoutar Harchi and Christopher Hogarth add to the section with their inquiries related to the access of young writers to literary identity and to the self-identification of Afropeans, respectively. Part two connects the work of France's youngest generation of post-migrants to the legacies of empire and covers cultural products from two distinct former colonies. Leslie Barnes and Catherine Nguyen contribute an essay each on the work of artists who probe at relationships between contemporary France and her former colonies in present-day Cambodia and Vietnam. Subsequently, Susan Ireland's piece argues that the reverberations of the Harki migration from French-Algeria to France continue to gain additional relevance. While it is an engaging section, I wondered if it would have benefited from a contribution focused on a third former French colony. The penultimate section addresses questions of marginalization and access to French identity. The first two essays (Stève Puig and Chong Bretillon) are dedicated to the role of rap music in bridging the gap between the identities of disenfranchised youth, especially as they relate to African origins and Islam, and national belonging. Will Higbee's essay is third, and it is made up primarily of an analysis of Bande de filles; he argues that the film buttresses problematic stereotypes as much as it dissolves them. The book concludes with its strongest section, wherein the authors place visual material in dialogue with the post-migratory theme. The first and last essays (Felicia McCarren and Siobhán Shilton) are studies of hip-hop dance and graffiti. The authors move past the category "street art" to assert the national importance of these mediums. Essay two (Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp) is a visual analysis of two films that portray mixed-ethnic partnerships. It highlights the role of betweenness in examining ethnicity. Ilaria Vitali, whose essay is third, uses the bande dessinée genre to examine familial exclusion among post-migrant communities.