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Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.kmt4p1

>

Where these data come from
Emancipation and poetic creation.From Negritude to women writting in the example of Aimé Césaire, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Ahmadou Kourouma, Calixthe Beyala

Abstract

In the context of the independences of former French colonies, the poetic impetus of militant authors such as Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor or Léon-Gontran Damas is adamantly linked to the rebuttal of colonialism and to political activism. Intellectuals, writers, and artists strongly condemn European imperialisms. For the “Négritude” poets, poetry stands as the most obvious testimony of political and literary commitment. Their poetic works, relying both on oral practices inherited from Africa and on relatively classic prosodic styles, is the vehicle for political messages and reclaiming of African culture. Subsequently, novel writing in sub-Saharian Africa tackles more and more themes of slavery, colonization, colonial alienation, neo-colonialism, all of this becoming empowering processes. The question is to open on a renewed vision of the world, giving the French language a new creative trace, through the authors’ representation. Therefore, Francophone literature reclaims its singularity. This is especially true with Cameroon and Congo: for instance, Ahmadou Kourouma posits that his literature is malinké. Tchicaya U. Tam’si declares that if the French language is colonizing him, then he colonizes it in turn. The colonized rebellion paradoxically leans on the French colonizer language, while trying to displace and advance it through writing. Francophone literature in sub-Saharian Africa is the place of differences and of “différances”, for it bears the traces of many sociological reflexions, and becomes, through its diversity, a place for creativity, liberty and hybridity. We also witness the rise of political protest novel against dictatures, corruption, civil wars ; for example Ahmadou Kourouma, writing Allah n’est pas obligé, does not bother anymore with the rules of literature but excels in the practice of a “rotten language” to describe an atrocious war. This is a form of creativity similar to the one that give birth to creole, “français petit-nègre”, “camfranglais” and one that African sub-Saharian literature explore. It is in this perspective opened by subversive writing and reading practices that women emancipation in Africa takes place. The case of Calixthe Beyala, among others, illustrates this evolution of the status of women in society, beyond the sexual male/female divide. This process stems from post-colonialism and independentist movements gaining power and focus in the XXth century. Women distinguish themselves thanks to their writing and speech in a public sphere reserved to men. Novels written by sub-Saharian African women carefully describe traditional practices, polygamy, forced marriages. These writers, through their acquired freedom speech, have gained the power to participate in the public debate. This form of emancipation takes hold of a language and an art formerly reserved to men because of traditions. Violence, slang words, obscene or pornographic language are no longer part of a male monopoly on poetic language. This poetic creation is vested differently by women writers, who are therefore able to express themselves.

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