Jeux de miroirs : Kourouma l'interprete?

Authors

Justin K. Bisanswa, Université Laval

Abstract

Critics have often tended to show how Ahmadou Kourouma has expressed the disillusionment of the African "suns of the independences," ''tropicalized" the French language by bending its syntax to fit that of Malinke, and produced novels for "occidental importation" on the basis of oral texts. From a standpoint of sociopragmatics, in contradistinction, I would like to detail the internal specificity of Kourouma's fictional text by its means of production by analyzing it with respect to its cycle of production in terms of strategies, the writer's itinerary, its placement at the center of the literary field, etc. In addition, I will establish the element of tactical engagement provided by the mechanisms of production, emergence, and legitimation. By examing the defocalization, the "mise en abyme," and the play of reflection, I will demonstrate how the conditions of production are inscribed within the text itself and how the text is a literary mechanism that functions and relates the process of its own production.

Recommended Citation

Bisanswa, Justin K. (2002) "Jeux de miroirs : Kourouma l'interprete?," Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 59: No. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol59/iss1/4