Afroeuropean peripheral mobilities in francophone African literatures

ABSTRACT

Paris is the axiomatic centre of francophone African literary representations of Europe. Focusing on narratives that revise Paris-centeredness, this article explores francophone African representations of European peripheries from the perspective of Afroeuropean (im)mobilities. The article shows how, in novels by Michèle Rakotoson, Kidi Bebey, Simon Njami, and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, three specific Afroeuropean mobile subjectivities, namely the newcomer, the holidaymaker, and the clandestine migrant, produce very different meanings of European peripheries. While the meanings of peripheral spaces in the novels vary and, thus, attest to the complexity of the concept of the periphery and point to a shift from a national framework towards a continental one, the texts simultaneously articulate the perpetual pull of traditional centres.

KEYWORDS:

• Afroeuropean
• Europe
• francophone African literatures
• (im)mobility
• periphery
• mobile subjectivities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. While my analysis on Njami’s novel focuses on the protagonist’s holiday trips in France, it should be underlined that the novel also represents his business trips to Europe outside the Hexagon.

2. Since Sarr’s novel transcends the national framework, the metropolis/province nexus is not relevant for the analysis of the text.

3. Previously, I have discussed Rakotoson’s novel’s portrayals of urban mobilities and practical cosmopolitanism (Toivanen 2019a).

4. All translations from the novels included are by the article author.

5. See also Ní Loingsigh’s (2009, 160) analysis of Beyala’s Maman a un amant.

6. A similar pattern of insular peripheries versus “real Europe” informs Fabienne Kanor’s (2014) Faire l’aventure (see Toivanen 2019b).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland under Grant 330906.

Notes on contributors

Anna-Leena Toivanen

Anna-Leena Toivanen is Academy Research Fellow (2020–25) and docent in postcolonial literary studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Her current research project focuses on the poetics of mobility in francophone African literatures. She has published widely on mobility-related themes in African literatures, and her most recent articles feature in Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Francosphères, Transfers, and Mobilities. She is the author of Mobilities and Cosmopolitanisms in African and Afrodiasporic Literatures (2021).