Whither homework or fieldwork? On díya, plaisir, and pleasure

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Notes

1 But, despite its potentially disorderly features, Dawa understands pleasure as a principal contributing element to the individual’s plenitude. Consequently, he gives Sarraounia the latitude to experience it through men because “A nankhi hi bolo gnan nangbè, fara folo fin néyé” ([They will be your tools for pastime, for unwinding your body] my translation). This conceptualization resonates with the platonic thought in Philebus according to which pleasure—the good one—works to restore a state of balance.

2 The notion of comparison in Comparative Literature is a fraught one. For more on this, see Melas (2006).

3 Karim Sagna, Siba Nzatioula Grovogui, Chérif Keïta, Agnieszka Kedzierska-Manzon, Jean Dérive, and Lucy Durán. My gratitude goes to all these scholars for their intellectual generosity.

4 Chérif Keïta also acknowledges that some Mande dialects, including mine, call honey “li.” But he does not believe that the term ever served as the stem for “díya.”