African Novels and the Question of Orality
Description:... "In part II of her study, Julien selects three generic tendencies (epic, initiation story, and fable) to use as the basis for detailed study of six novels. She reads each novel not as a "natural" derivation of an oral tradition but as a meaningful reappropriation of an oral narrative genre. That is to say, these genres may have origins in oral traditions, but they are adapted and transformed differentially--in specific, intricate, and significant ways. The novels of epic tendency, Hampate Ba's L'Etrange Destin de Wangrin (1974) and Ousmane Sembene's Les Bouts de bois de Dieu (1960), reveal a range of adaptation. In the first, the categories of hero and object of the quest show degradation and thereby signal a decline in possibilities for heroism under colonialism. In the second, categories of hero and heroic action are revised, challenging the hierarchical norms implicit in the epic. The initiation story also bears evidence of differential adaptation. Camara Laye's Le Regard du roi (1954) nostalgically seeks to assert the old order, in which community and nature are one and supreme, while Jean-Marie Adiaffi's modifications in La Carte d'identite (1980) signal important changes in contemporary society--heterogeneity and new forces and issues--changes for which this metaphysical form seems inappropriate. In her examination of the fable, Julien shows that in the neo-colonial context, this genre lends itself to sophisticated experimentation in political discourse.
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