This study focuses on the different strategies that the author uses to subvert the patriarchal and the colonial discourses which are reflected in the novel "Les Honneurs perdus" of Calixthe Beyala. In the introduction a theoretical background is given which includes feminist and postcolonial literary theories and their relation to postmodern theories and deconstruction. The introduction underlines the importance of the constitution of subject in postcolonial and feminist theories in contrast to deconstruction of subject in postmodernism and poststructuralism. The analysis demonstrates that the novel can be seen as a female bildungsroman in the protagonist’s intent to create an autonomous identity. A gynocentric writing and the dialogue with another female character, the heroine’s antagonistic double, which includes the possibility of a female genealogy, as well as the final love to a white man, contribute essentially to transculturation and the construction of the heroine’s hybrid identity. The second chapter of the analysis shows that the dichotomies Europe–Africa and man–woman in the binary system of the western way of thinking are very marked in the novel. Finally the third chapter points out how the different narrative techniques like the mixing of different language levels, the creation of new words, the use of irony and carnivalation, a special form of parody, as well as the intertextuality of magic realism deconstruct and subvert the heritage of colonial and patriarchal values and demonstrate the post-colonial misery both in the protagonist’s native suburb in Cameroun and in Paris.

Ce travail a pour but d' analyser la facon dont deux romancieres africaines, Veronique Tadjo et Calixthe Beyala, reussissent a rendre leurs romans plus proches de leurs experiences personnelles en tant que femmes. En exploitant des formes innovatrices, elles arrivent a depeindre les complexites de la condition de la femme. Pour mieux comprendre ces nouveaux procedes d' ecriture, nous montrerons l' importance de la forme ainsi que le rapport entre la forme et le contenu dans les romans A Vol d'oiseau (1986) et Le Petit Prince de Belleville (1992). Nous commencerons en situant le moment litteraire ou elles ecrivent dans le courant de la litterature africaine. Dans le premier chapitre, nous examinerons la forme des deux romans en nous basant, en partie, sur quelques concepts tires de Esthetique et theorie du roman de Mikhail Bakhtine. Le deuxieme chapitre portera sur le rapport entre la forme et son contenu. Nous pourrons conclure qu' a travers deux formes differentes l' une de l' autre, Veronique Tadjo et Calixthe Beyala proposent une solution originale pour l' emancipation des femmes africaines dans une ecriture variee et dynamique. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

According to some theorists, the roman d’apprentissage, a sub-genre of the novel that reached its height during the 19th century, was essentially a masculine genre in which the female characters invariably played an incidental role. Although some maintain that the sub-genre is now obsolete, many others insist that it continues to be adapted to explore themes relating to larger topics such feminism and postcolonialism. The current study examines how a female author of Cameroonian origin, Calixthe Beyala, appears to have adapted the traditional form of the roman d’apprentissage in her novel, Assèze l’Africaine, to reflect the perspective of a young black woman migrating from Cameroon to Paris, while simultaneously exploring theoretical concepts such as féminitude and hybridité. By comparing the essential characteristics of the novel to those advanced by Pierre Aurégan (1997) concerning the sub-genre as a whole, the study first attempts to determine whether the novel in question can reasonably be classified as a roman d’apprentissage. Subsequently, given that the protagonist is female, by exploring the literary function of several of the male characters in the novel, the study seeks to reveal whether the roles of the characters are simply reversed according to their gender, with the male characters merely playing an incidental role. The study reveals that although the author has clearly adapted the sub-genre to suit her own purposes, the novel still adheres to enough of the typical characteristics to be classified as a roman d’apprentissage. In addition, although the protagonist is female, the roles of the characters do not appear to be simply reversed, as several of the male characters are essential to the emotional development of the heroine, as well as to the perpetuation of the binary oppositions female/male and black/white, which, it has been suggested, the author seeks to maintain in her other works. It would seem that, in the novel under examination, the male characters largely function as an essential complement to the female ones. It remains to be seen, however, whether the same can be said about the characters in the author’s other works.

No description available.

Text in French; abstract in French and English / Observatrice des réalités quotidiennes camerounaises, Calixthe Beyala a publié, en 1987, un roman intitulé C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée. Dans ce roman, elle montre au lecteur comment la femme, victime de la tradition, utilise, avec l’apport de la modernité, son corps comme moyen pour reconquérir son moi profond, et retrouver sa liberté. En 1994, elle a écrit et publié Assѐze, l’Africaine. Et en 2003, elle a publié Femme nue, femme noire. Après une lecture minutieuse de ces trois livres, le lecteur peut facilement découvrir que Calixthe Beyala place la femme au centre de sa préoccupation littéraire. Et elle examine, dans sa fiction, deux thѐmes: la tradition et la modernité. Qu’entend-elle par tradition et modernité? Comment examine-t-elle ces deux thѐmes dans les ouvrages de notre corpus? Quelles solutions propose-t-elle à la femme, d’une part, pour se libérer du joug de la tradition et de la domination masculine, et d’autre part, pour (re)conquérir son corps, son moi profond et pour son émancipation? / Observer of the daily Cameroonian realities, Calixthe Beyala published, in 1987, a novel entitled C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée. In this novel, she shows the reader how a woman, victim of tradition, uses her body as means to reconquer herself and to find her freedom. In 1994, she wrote and published Assèze, l’Africane. And in 2003, she published Femme nue, femme noire. After a careful reading of the three novels, the reader can easily discover that Calixthe Beyala places woman in the center of her literary preoccupation. And she examines, in her fiction, two themes, tradition and modernity. What does she mean by tradition and modernity? How does she examine these two themes in the novels of our study? What solutions does she propose to the woman, firstly, to liberate herself from the yoke of tradition and male’s domination, and secondly, to reconquer her body, herself and her emancipation? / Classics and World Languages / M.A. (French)

This study examines the feminist ideas in Calixthe Beyala's fictional novel Les Honneurs perdus (1996) and her essay Lettre d'une Africaine à ses sœurs occidentales (1995). The description of women's situation and their possible liberation in these two texts are analyzed, notably based on the feminist theories articulated by Simone de Beauvoir and by Judith Butler. The analysis demonstrates that the women in these texts live in a patriarchal society where they are oppressed and dominated by men. Religion and tradition serve as a way of internalizing this oppression. Early on, the women learn that their sexuality is owned by men, and that the main purpose of their existence is to get married and have children. However, Beyala also demonstrates a possiblity for women to reclaim their subjectivity and to liberate themselves from men's oppression, mainly through gaining awareness of the oppression, getting access to education and finding solidarity between women. In the last chapter of the analysis, Beyala's vision of the woman as the savior of the world is questioned, and the importance of the postcolonial context is considered. The study concludes that Beyala's feminist ideas consist of a fusion of, on one hand, Western feminist theories such as those based on the works of Beauvoir and, on the other hand, ideas of solidarity characteristic for the African continent. This creates a feminism which, just like Beyala herself, straddles two continents.

Cette étude porte sur le corps noir et l'intersubjectivité dans Ceux de July de Nadine Gordimer (1981), Tar Baby de Toni Morrison (1981) et Tu t'appelleras Tanga de Calixthe Beyala (1988). Dans chacun des récits, la représentation du corps noir est le pivot des relations qui unit les personnages noirs et blancs. L'évolution des différentes trames narratives dépend de la réinscription permanente de la figure du Noir dans les rapports intersubjectifs entre les Noirs et Blancs. Le premier objectif de ce mémoire de maîtrise est donc d'exposer la mise en scène littéraire de cette figure, avant tout, discursive, à travers les déplacements poétiques qu'effectue chacune des auteures. Cette analyse se fait principalement à partir de trois approches: organique, narratologique et sémiologique. Elle met aussi à contribution certaines notions relatives à la subjectivité dans l'énonciation. D'une part, cette analyse illustre les moyens par lesquels les personnages parviennent à construire des dichotomies qui, de prime abord, sont présentées comme étant indépassables à travers une série d'espaces où les différences sont démultipliées. D'autre part, ce travail de mémoire cherche à rendre compte de la nature intimement fictionnelle et sociale des corps, tout en démontrant une différence notoire de l'articulation du corps noir constamment chargé d'un « poids » métaphorique péjoratif qui efface le sujet. À travers leur écriture, les trois auteures parviennent à mettre en évidence les lieux communs de la représentation du corps noir, tout en réinscrivant ces derniers dans une polysémie déroutante et éclairante sur les communautés de sens qui enferment ou qui ouvrent les sujets sur eux-mêmes et sur les autres. En ce sens, les trois microcosmes déconstruisent -chacun dans son contexte respectif -la représentation du Noir. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Figure du Noir, Corporéité, Intersubjectivité, Stéréotype, Altérité, Roman, Mythe.

30 years after the coining of autofiction (Doubrovsky, 1977), there is still no general consensus about its exact meaning. This research set out to discover autofiction, whether there is a need for this term, why the public has taken such an interest in autofiction. Research questions were divided into two major categories: 1. What is autofiction? What is its origin? How has it evolved? Which differences are there, if any, between autobiography and autofiction? Is there a need for the separate genre of autofiction? Why/why not? What are its general characteristics? 2. Do the three analysed women authors – Nothomb, Beyala and Bouraoui – incorporate these elements in their writing? If so, how and why? Is autofictional writing a stage/posture in the personal writing development of an author? Is there any link between the writing of the own persona and the obsession with the public persona? Concentrating on terminological and theoretical issues, extensive literature review was done in the first part of the research. Starting from main literary criticism regarding fiction and autobiography/autofiction, the theoretical side of my research dealt with narrative identity and the true/false dichotomy of fact/fiction. Together with qualitative research about intertextuality as applied by autofictional writers (difference plagiarism and intertextual borrowing) led to a functional definition of autofiction, the basis for the comparative study of the three authors. For the research into their public persona, extensive internet research and analysis of newspaper articles were undertaken to show: 1. how the authors portray themselves; 2. how they are perceived by the media; 3. how this possibly influences their writing style. Autofiction requires analysis of: 1. why authors write 2. about what they write 3. how they incorporate the Self and the world in their writing. Bouraoui compares writing to an almost sexual act of love, the most intimate possible. Writing was the only way she could deal with childhood memories and repressed homosexuality. Beyala writes to communicate with others, while Nothomb considers writing as a means to live more intensely, after anorexia. The specificities and distinctive characteristics of the texts and authors were discovered through narrative analysis (factual research into the authors’ public persona + textual analysis of literary oeuvres). In Chapter 3 (Calixthe Beyala), feminine literary criticism as well as postcolonial theories guided my reading. Chapter 4 (Nina Bouraoui) allowed reflexion on the links between memory, identity, truth and autofictional writing. All chapters included research on Doubrovsky’s link between psychoanalysis and autofiction. In conclusion, there is a strong indication that one should speak of autofictions in the plural. This research explains some of the differences between autobiography and autofiction while underlining the importance of the existence of this new, separate sub-genre. The researcher had an opportunity to reflect on human memory and re-interpretation of facts. Where does the dividing line between truth and falsehood fall when the author puts the reader deliberately on a false track by introducing his/her work as « a novel »? Recent, post-modern writing has deliberately transgressed the fine dividing line between fact/fiction. The present research corroborates this view. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This study is based on the main female African characters in Une si longue lettre written in 1979 by Mariama Bâ and Assèze l’Africaine written in 1994 by Calixthe Beyala. Both novels describe the African society and the obstacles that exist for women in this society where men dominate. This study presents the transformation of Ramatoulaye that is a traditional and passive woman but she becomes modern. In addition, it presents the transformation of young Aïssatou that becomes an independent and strong woman, in these two novels. These two women are facing similar forms of discriminations and oppression in the African society and they are struggling against injustice in various ways. The aim of this analysis is to investigate how the image of the African women and the feminism in Africa show and develop through the main characters, Ramatoulaye and Aïssatou. The conclusion reveal that the image of the African women has considerably changed over the years in a positive way and that Femininity is a cultural construction and not a natural construction. The conclusion further reveal that even today a woman is not independent, but is still considered "the Other" in relation to the man.

The title of this paper is "Two generations of African writers: Women who conform to norms, and women who make noise. Mariama Bâ and Calixthe Beyala”. In this study we analyze two novels, Une si longue lettre by Mariama Bâ (1979) and Assèze l’Africaine by Calixthe Beyala (1994). We examine the similarities and differences in expression, style and themes. Our objective is to determine whether Bâ and Beyala are representing two different groups of African female writers. We have combined a postcolonial approach with a comparative method. Our hypothesis is that the two novels stand in contrast to each other through differences in themes and styles. In order to test this hypothesis we use previous research. Our analysis shows that the work of Bâ has a sober and refined style of writing. Bâ is raising awareness of the situation of women, without deviating from social norms, choosing themes such as polygamy, sisterhood and the value of education. In the work of Beyala we see a more pronounced political criticism, in a bolder and more agitating style of writing. Our conclusion is that the two novels are strongly differentiated through themes and styles. Bâ and Beyala belong to two different generations of female French-speaking African authors.