Abstract
Diam’s is a French female rapper otherwise known as Mélanie Georgiades who was prominent in France’s music scene from 1999 up until 2010 when she retreated to a small village in the French countryside. Her claim to fame was her anti-racist lyrics but what grabbed the media’s attention was her reappearance in the public sphere wearing a veil. In this article, I trace her career from her lyrics, music videos, and finally to her autobiographies which she published during her retirement from music. By following her work, I analyze the avatars of Diam’s and Mélanie to portray her journey from the persona of Diam’s to the political stakes in writing about her faith in the autobiographies. I investigate whether Diam’s, as the performer, and Mélanie as the author, question the complicated positionalities of women in France, particularly that of a Muslim woman. I argue that Diam’s donning of the veil and her subsequent publications provide us with alternative avatars which disrupt French public space particularly in her insistence of French and Muslim as co-existing identities.
Key Words: Interiority, Geography, Black Feminism, Cultural Studies, Space, Autobiography, French Feminisms.
Recommended Citation
Marcelino, Taryn
(2022)
"Diam's: The Politics of Autobiography and Avatarhood in the French Republic,"
Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies: Vol. 1:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://epublications.marquette.edu/jgecp/vol1/iss1/5
Included in
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, History Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Religion Commons
