jenvahissais

Jenvahissais is a coined French term used as the title of a 2020 multimedia project by the collective La Trame. In the project, the word functions as a recurring linguistic motif to explore themes of invasion, memory, and the role of language in power relations. The form resembles the first-person imperfect indicative of the verb envahir (j'envahissais, I was invading), but is intentionally stylized without the apostrophe. The creators describe the term as a metonym for the persistence of historical encroachments in language and narrative.

Origin and usage: The term appears in the project’s opening pages of an accompanying novella and recurs across short stories, soundscapes, and visuals. By using a familiar verb form in an unconventional orthography, jenvahissais invites readers to reflect on how language encodes action and memory.

Publication and reception: While not part of standard French, the term has been discussed in art reviews and linguistic essays as an example of linguistic experimentation in contemporary postcolonial writing. Critics note its capacity to evoke responsibility and complicity through a simple morphological shape.

Legacy and influence: The concept has been cited in discussions of invented language in digital media and in studies of memory politics in literature. It also appears in lexicon lists of neologisms created for artistic projects.

See also: envahir; imperfect (French); neologism; postcolonial literature.