Figures de témoins: Médiations littéraires et fictionnelles du génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda

ABSTRACT

In what way can the special position of “witnesses from outside” and “witnesses of the aftermath” that characterizes many writers who, in the space of twenty years, have devoted works to transmit the memory of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda help redefine the notion of testimony, and above all, on what terms? To the extent that a “media memory” of the event (essentially in the form of images broadcast in the mass media in 1994) predates the work of writers, the idea is to question, from an ethical and aesthetic point of view, the potential of literary fiction to construct and transmit the memory of this event today. While updating some elements of a poethics [une poéthique] of mediation, this paper also seeks to measure how, beyond the use of a style that can be described as iconic, certain literary works can attempt a true passing on of memory capable of crossing time and boundaries between author and reader, others and myself, visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious, giving a new dimension to the issue of testimony.

KEYWORDS:

• Fiction
• genocide
• literature
• media
• witnessing
• Rwanda

Notes

1. Formule de Romuald Fonkoua (67). Elle désigne ces écrivains qui ne sont pas Rwandais et n'ont pas vécu le génocide.

2. « [Celan] n'a pas connu les camps d'extermination alors que ses parents y ont péri. Enfermé dans un camp de travail, il est saisi par le trauma de la disparition non seulement de sa famille mais des six millions de Juifs » (Robin 92).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Virginie Brinker

Virginie Brinker teaches French and Comparative Literature at the University of Burgundy. Her research focuses on the relationship between literature (including African literature) and memory, especially of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, and the issue of the teaching and transmission of this event. She is the author of La Transmission littéraire et cinématographique du génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda (Classiques Garnier, 2014).