Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature
Abstract
This article examines the construction of identity in Alain Kamal Martial’s novel, Cicatrices. Conceived during a rape committed by a group of militiamen, the narrator struggles against a sense of obligation to avenge his mother’s assault, as well as a need to liberate himself from this event. However, under the onus of being a proxy witness, he realizes that he cannot forget his duty of memory because he embodies the inherited trauma of past generations. The crude and powerful immediacy of this text forces the reader to reflect upon his or her own role in the remembrance of past injustices.
Recommended Citation
Hargrave, Katharine
(2015)
"Le devoir de mémoire ou une identité ravalée dans Cicatrices d’Alain Kamal Martial,"
Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 85:
No.
1, Article 11.
Available at:
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol85/iss1/11
Included in
African Studies Commons, Fiction Commons, French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons