Dialectique de la figuration. Ken Bugul au miroir de son œuvre

Authors

Justin Bisanswa, Université de Lubumbashi/Université Laval

Abstract

Drawing from Ken Bugul's novel The Abandoned Baobab, generally considered as a projection of the autobiography of its author, this article shows that the novelist is revealed by veiling, and is thus subject to a self-objectification in which the fantasy narrative echoes the autobiographical narrative. Various self portraits are on display: feminist, rebel, accursed, failed, exiled. The text oscillates between the here and the elsewhere, inversing the fullness lived with the emptiness of there, thus confusing the here and the elsewhere. Three postures of liberation characterize the narrator's attitude: withdrawal, fascination and derision. Through various strategies, while committing to speak, the narrator constantly disengages from her speech, going from vows to disavowal. Thus, the quest for origins that is the aim of the novel proves vain and derisory. The novelist deploys an enunciative device in which utterance matters more than the uttered, the former hiding and contradicting the latter.

Recommended Citation

Bisanswa, Justin (2018) "Dialectique de la figuration. Ken Bugul au miroir de son œuvre," Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 91: No. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol91/iss1/9