Homage to Belgianness: Mutations after Shame and Malaise

Abstract

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the publication of the emblematic dossier “Une autre Belgique”, in which the neologism belgitude was first used, we analyze its impact in the context of the search for the legitimization by the French-speaking wri­ters of Belgium. Underscoring the interest of the less mentioned texts, the numerous theoretical discourses are articulated depar­ting from the symptomatic autobiographi­cal testimony by Anne-Marie La Fère titled “Confession d’une Belge honteuse” (1980). The changes between the 1950s and 1980s in the paradigmatic literary development of Jean Muno –who proclaims himself an inhabitant of “Malaise”? allow the illustration of the process of identity affirmation in the periphery of France