Countermodernism and Francophone Literary Culture: The Game of SlipknotDuke University Press, 1999 - 300 pages Keith L. Walker traverses the traditionally imposed boundaries of geography and race as he examines the literary culture produced by French speakers and writers born outside France. Focusing on the commonalities revealed in their shared language and colonial history, Walker examines for the first time the work of six writers who, while artistically distinct and geographically scattered, share complex sensibilities regarding their own relationship to France and the French language and, as he demonstrates, produce a counterdiscourse to their colonizers' modern literary traditions. Martinique, French Guyana, Senegal, Morocco, and Haiti serve as the stage for the struggle these writers have faced with French language and culture, a struggle influenced by the legacy of Aimé Césaire. In his stand against the modernist principles of Charles Baudelaire, Walker argues, Césaire has become the preeminent francophone countermodernist. A further examination of the relationships between Césaire and the writers Léon Gontron Damas, Mariama Bâ, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Ken Bugul, and Gérard Étienne forms the core of the book and leads to Walker's characterization of francophone literature as having "slipped the knot," or escaped the snares of the familiar binary oppositions of modernism. Instead, he discovers in these writers a shared consciousness rooted in an effort to counter and denounce modernist humanist discourse and pointing toward a new subjectivity formed through the negotiation of an alternative modernity. Countermodernism and Francophone Literary Culture will engage readers interested in French literature and in postcolonial, Caribbean, African, American, and francophone studies. |
Table des matières
The Game of Slipknot | 19 |
Léon Gontran Damas and Body | 67 |
Theorizing the Francophone Condition | 93 |
Colonialism Literary Tradition and Counterstorytelling | 103 |
Mariama Bâ Menopause Epistolarity and Postcolo | 126 |
Status Inconsistency Role Conflict | 148 |
Ken Bugul and Le Baobab | 173 |
Gérard Etienne Shame and the Counter | 213 |
Coming out from under the Sign | 266 |
Notes | 277 |
295 | |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
Countermodernism and Francophone Literary Culture: The Game of Slipknot Keith Louis Walker Affichage du livre entier - 1999 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
Abandoned Baobab African Ahmed/Zahra Aimé Césaire alienation assimilation autre Bâ's Baobab Batouala beast Black c'est Caribbean Césaire's consciousness counterconfession counterstorytelling d'une Damas's decolonization Discourse on Colonialism domination double dreams Erzulie Etienne's être European exile experience fait femme France francophone literary culture francophone literature Frantz Fanon French colonial game of slipknot Gérard Etienne Haiti Haitian homme human humor J'ai jamais jour Ken Bugul Ken's l'homme language Le Nègre Léon Gontran Damas Léopold Sédar Senghor letter linguistic longue lettre male Maran Mariama Bâ Martinican menopause mère monde moral Moroccan mother n'est narrative nation native Nègre crucifié Negritude Negro noire Notebook Nounoune novel one's Ourika pacotille pain Paris poem poet poetry political postcolonial postindependence prisoner qu'elle qu'il qu'on race Ramatoulaye René Maran rien Sand Child schizophrenia sense seul silence slave slipknot social society suicide Tahar ben Jelloun tion torture tout tradition woman women words writing