Monde étrange/étranger-monde : chant d'une heureuse fragilité dans Cacophonie de Ken Bugul

Authors

Anaïs Metoukson, Université Laval

Abstract

This paper analyzes the psychological vulnerability of a wandering and traumatized feminine character in Ken Bugul's novel Cacophonie. It is argued that vulnerability, presented both as a creative and destructive force, is conveyed using an aesthetic of strangeness. Disturbances accumulate on the figurative, event and semantic levels, maintaining an hesitation between supernatural and natural explanations of the narrative process. However, those same troubles also allow a diving into the pain of a lonely spirit. Ultimately, this psychic maze offers a breakaway, given as a consented and redefined fragility. Through the willing choice of death, the never-ending agony of the character is transformed into a precious and liberated intimacy with the self. Death does polarize the idea of vulnerability into an issue of running away from the pain or, on the contrary, taking action, regarding the self.

Recommended Citation

Metoukson, Anaïs (2020) "Monde étrange/étranger-monde : chant d'une heureuse fragilité dans Cacophonie de Ken Bugul," Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 94: No. 1, Article 10.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol94/iss1/10