Les lézardes du sens dans les romans d’Ahmadou Kourouma

Authors

Justin K. Bisanswa, Université Laval

Abstract

The text illustrates that Kourouma’s novels act as an exemplary exteriorisation of a singular point of view on the world, while also acting as a space of transformation, touching both the anecdotes told and the process of narration. Through the general nature of their titles, the novels do not so much designate a décor, but rather an image of the human condition in which life governed by destiny fi nds, in the heart of social decay, a metaphor – both sombre and precise – for postcolonial Africa. Thus, the novels do not entirely absorb this philosophy of existence upheld by lost illusions and which hesitates between two conceptions of independence. On the one hand, independence is seen as a sign of an end to colonisation and the promise of well-being, and, on the other, the awareness of long-lost illusions. Kourouma’s novels therefore display an aesthetic of disenchantment. He translates the weight of fatalities to his reader while extrapolating a sort of pleasure from them, much in the same way he highlights the sublime grandeur of those who, after a desperate resistance, consent to the same unjust fate that was done upon them.

Recommended Citation

Bisanswa, Justin K. (2012) "Les lézardes du sens dans les romans d’Ahmadou Kourouma," Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 78: No. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol78/iss1/4