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Title From colonialism to post -nationality: Resistance and disorder in Francophone literature from Madagascar.
Full text http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3138136; http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/124386
Date 2004
Author(s) Compan-Barnard, Magali
Contributor(s) Ekotto, Frieda; Hayes, Jarrod
Abstract This dissertation examines the cultural, political, and historical contingencies that shape the role of language and writing in the relationship between France and Madagascar. It considers how literature functions as a contested means of power, resistance, and identity formation during and after colonialism, by examining the different techniques, from covert resistance to overt disorder, that allowed Malagasy writers to carve out a creative, expressive space for themselves. The dissertation examines the colonial- and postcolonial-era poetry of Jacques Rabemananjara together with the recent fiction of the new generation writer Jean-Luc Raharimanana. Rabemananjara's first published collection <italic> Sur les marches du soir</italic>---written under colonial rule---has been dismissed by critics who focus exclusively on his later Negritude writings. This early poetry, however, communicates a hidden transcript while demonstrating a mastery of form; as such, it employs a strategy of covert resistance similar to that of pre-Harlem Renaissance African American writers. It also sheds fresh light on Rabemananjara's more celebrated Negritude poetry, written after he was imprisoned for his role in the insurrection of 1947. Challenging the schism critics have created between Rabemananjara's colonial and post-colonial writings, this dissertation considers how his Negritude poetry grew out of his earlier work and made a contradictory contribution to Malagasy nationalism. In contrast to Rabemananjara's nationalist writing, Raharimanana's fiction expresses a condition of post-nationality through his use and abuse of the French language. In his novel <italic>Nour1947</italic>, he returns to the subject of Madagascar's failed insurrection. In contrast to Rabemananjara, however, Raharimanana seeks to render a decomposition of the nation state and challenge the imperative of speaking as/for the subaltern. In light of the comparison of these two figures, this dissertation then offers a theory of island poetics common to Malagasy writers across the colonial, post-colonial, and post-national moments. Both Rabemananjara's and Raharimanana's writings, together with colonial-era poetry of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, reveal instances of francophone literary resistance tied to the geographic, historical, and cultural specificity of Madagascar. All three writers seize on the western trope of the island as a means of creating a Malagasy island poetics that serves and nurtures their francophone literary voices. - Ph.D. - African literature - Language, Literature and Linguistics - Modern language - Romance literature - University of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies - http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/124386/2/3138136.pdf
Subject(s) Colonialism; Disorder; Francophone; Jacques Rabemananjara; Jean-joseph Rabearivelo; Jean-luc Raharimanana; Literature; Madagascar; Nationality; Post; Rabearivelo, Jean-joseph; Rabemananjara, Jacques; Raharimanana, Jean-luc; Resistance
Language French; FR
Type of publication Thesis
Format 278 p.; application/pdf
Repository Michigan - University of Michigan
Added to C-A: 2020-11-23;09:58:42