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Reversals of Exile: Williams Sassine’s Wirriyamu and Tierno Monénembo’s Pelourinho

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2014

Audrey Small
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Abstract:

This essay examines two novels by exiled Guinean writers in which physical space functions as a central point of reference for very different, though related, considerations of traumatized memory, identity, and exile. In Williams Sassine’s Wirriyamu (1976), a violent and violated rural landscape becomes emblematic of a specific traumatic event occurring within the time frame of the novel and of contemporary political reality; while in Tierno Monénembo’s Pelourinho (1995), a present-day cityscape provides consistently uncertain territory for thinking through a trauma that transcends history, that of the transatlantic slave trade. This article seeks to examine some of the ways in which contemporary trauma theory may be useful in reading Francophone West African fiction as well as some of the limitations of this theory in its applications to this corpus.

Résumé:

Cet article examine deux romans d’écrivains guinéens exilés dans lesquels l’espace physique agit comme un point de référence central dans la discussion de thèmes très différents bien que reliés: la mémoire traumatisée, l’identité et l’exil. Dans le roman de Williams Sassine, Wirriyamu (1976), un paysage rural rempli de violence et de violations devient emblématique d’un événement traumatique spécifique qui se déroule sur la durée du roman et dans le contexte chronologique des évènements politiques contemporains; d’autre part, le roman de Tierno Monénembo, Pelourinho (1995) met en scène un paysage urbain d’aujourd’hui offrant un terrain de réflexion toujours mouvant sur un traumatisme transcendant l’histoire, celui de la traite transatlantique des esclaves. Cet article vise à examiner les manières variées dont la théorie universitaire contemporaine sur la compréhension des traumas pourrait être utile dans la lecture de la fiction francophone provenant d’Afrique de l’ouest, ainsi que les limites de son application à un tel domaine.

Keywords

SassineWirriyamuMonénemboPelourinhoexiletrauma
Type
ARTICLES
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , December 2014 , pp. 41 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2014 

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