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Making up their own minds: readers, interpretations and the difference of view in Ghanaian popular narratives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Stephanie Newell
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Résumé

La lecture est un événement social qui a lieu dans le contexte de suppositions à propos du language et du sens qui conditionnent les interprétations d'un individuel. Avant de tourner la première page d'un roman populaire, ou de regarder la première scène d'une représentation théâtrale, le ‘lecteur’ occupe toujours une position receptive qui est spécifique culturellement, et il est vraisemblable que chaque occasion d'interprétation soit inspiré par des préconceptions au sujet de la fonction de la littérature.

Le rôle des lecteurs est essentiel à la discussion des narratives populaires en Afrique de l'ouest. Les auteurs reconnaissent la participation des lecteurs à la jointe création des romans, à tel point que les histoires elles-mêmes peuvent être tansformées ou prolongées en réponse aux lettres des lecteurs. En prenant parti pour le type de personnage dont la position sociale ressemble le plus à la leur, les lecteurs sélectionnent des figures à qui ils peuvent assigner du blâme et des éloges et à travers lesquelles ils peuvent confirmer leur opinions sur les rôles domestiques des hommes et des femmes. Les lecteurs adoptent des positions interprétatives qui dépendent de la façon dont ils peuvent rattacher les personnages fictifs à leurs réserves d'opinions sur es conjoints, les ‘filles de bon-temps’, les belles-mères, les ‘vieux protecteurs’ et les prostituées.

Une perspective qui se base sur le lecteur est done essentielle pour compléter lʼanalyse littéraire ‘directe’ des narratives populaires. En effet, on pourrait dire que sans la contribution interprétative des lecteurs de l'Afrique de l'ouest la fiction populaire n'est rien. Les lecteurs ne peuvent pas être homogénéisé en une seule catégorie: pendant la lecture, des communautés distinctes et pré-constituées de ecteurs apparaissent, s'identifiant à l'histoire en tant que sujets sociaux et xtrapolant des opinions à partir du texte. Dans cet environnement réceptif, les narratives populaires prennent l'apparence de radeaux plutôt que d'épaves, évoquant et soutenant les reconstructions actives et intéressées que les lecteurs font d'euxnêmes.

Type
Ghanaians at the mirror
Information
Africa , Volume 67 , Issue 3: Audiences in action , July 1997 , pp. 389 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1997

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