Lieux fictifs, réelles critiques : Kaveena de Boubacar Boris Diop

Authors

Morgan Faulkner, University of Toronto

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between invention and reality in Boubacar Boris Diop’s novel, Kaveena (2006). The author intertwines the postcolonial story of a fictional African country with that of the real history of the continent. The fictional city of Maren and the region of Nimba are described in relation to Cameroun, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, among other concrete locations. Invented characters and those known by the reader (Patrice Lumumba, Idi Amin, etc.) both occupy space in the text. What narrative practices allow this association of the fictional story and historic details? What are the effects? How does this mix of the imaginary and reality participate in creating discourse on the art of invention, a topic that is profoundly questioned in the novel? This study examines the role and function of both invented and factual elements of the story with the objective of understanding the criticism expressed on the fictional utterance. We investigate how the association of the imaginary and factual realms creates a criticism of reality, notably that of a society marked by civil conflict, dictatorship and neocolonialism, while also elaborating a critique of literary invention itself. In such, Diop’s work questions speech, writing and the novel as a genre.

Recommended Citation

Faulkner, Morgan (2021) "Lieux fictifs, réelles critiques : Kaveena de Boubacar Boris Diop," Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 96: No. 1, Article 14.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol96/iss1/14