Yambo Ouologuem’s struggle for recognition in the field of “African” literature in French

Abstract

Since the early postcolonial period of the 1960s, there has been little change in the French literary field in regard to the way in which the Parisian capital of francophone regions implements an aesthetic norm based on ethnocentric criteria. The case of the subversive and anti-exotic literary strategy adopted by Malian writer Yambo Ouologuem in his prize-winning novel, Le Devoir de violence (1968; Bound to Violence), led to a literary scandal. The critical review of his case can help us to understand the dual operation of hegemonic power and symbolic value in the field of French literature over the past 40 years. It is still Paris that establishes aesthetic codes to which non-French authors conform, celebrating and valorizing their cultural otherness, rather than their “literariness” as measured on an equal basis with French literature. Highlighting the trajectory of Yambo Ouologuem in Paris and later in Mali, this article takes into account his different positions and oppositional strategies in face of the different instances of Eurocentric power he encountered in the literary field while aiming for recognition at an international, if not universal level.

Keywords:

• Yambo Ouologuem
• literary field
• Pascale Casanova
• consecration
• Le Devoir de violence
• delegitimation

Notes

1. The latter term is especially related to Michel Le Bris, a French promoter and entrepreneur of literature whose work focuses on adventure novels and literature from so-called “francophone” non-French writers in France.

2. Ouologuem’s critical aim can be compared to that of Stanislas Adotevi, another fierce opponent of négritude ideology. See his Négritude et négrologues.