Longing and Belonging - Désir et Appartenance

Studies on belonging tend to focus on sociological phenomena, essentially on definitions of identity, according to social, ethnic, religious, political or gender groupings. Literature allows us to examine these stances from individual and complex points of view. Indeed, the fact that some individuals may be between groups (in colonial circumstances, for example, when original groups have been fractured), or not allowed to integrate a new group (when the original group is revealed to be one of exclusion), shows that there are no hard and fast ways to reach a full understanding of what it is to belong –or even if belonging is at all possible, which then brings the issue of longing into the equation. How do fictional characters reflect these multifaceted notions? This intricate question is answered in this special issue which gathers a selection of articles around the themes of “Longing and Belonging/Désir et Appartenance”.