This study is concerned with the artistic rewriting, in French and by writers and filmmakers of West African origins, of the massacre of Thiaroye (Senegal), the 1944 mutiny of African soldiers severely repressed by the French army. The corpus is formed by the following works: a poem, “Tyaroye” (1944), by Senegalese poet and president Léopold Sédar Senghor, another poem by Guinean artist Fodeba Keita, “Aube africaine” (1949), a play, Thiaroye terre rouge (1981), by Senegalese writer and journalist Boubacar Boris Diop, a novel, Morts pour la France (1983), by Malian author Doumbi-Fakoly, a movie, Camp de Thiaroye (1987), by Senegalese director Sembene Ousmane, a short animated movie, L’Ami y’a bon (2004) by French filmmaker of Algerian origins Rachid Bouchareb, and a play by professor and writer Cheikh Faty Faye, Aube de sang (2005). The main purpose of this study is to constitute and characterize a history of these artistic representations. I argue that these works, produced either before the accession of African countries to independence in the 1940s, or twenty to twenty-five years afterwards in the 1980s, or quite recently, in the so-called era of “globalization," belong to three main trends or stages, according to the socio-political role they assume: insertion of Thiaroye in the collective memories of France and West Africa, for Senghor and Keita, use of the events to criticize and resist (neo-)colonialism, for Diop, Doumbi-Fakoly and Sembene Ousmane, and rereading of the past in the hope of building a society based on forgiveness and better understanding among peoples, for Bouchareb and Faye. The socio-political function endorsed by each work is put forward thanks to the close examination of its artistic techniques and the reconstitution of its specific context of production. / text

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.

La question de l’existence de la littérature africaine n’emporte pas le sens et la valeur de cette recherche mais en constitue un enjeu essentiel. Car c’est en fonction de leurs positionnements par rapport à cette question que les travaux d’Alain Mabanckou, Léonora Miano et d’autres “enfants de la postcolonie” seront analysés comme voie d’accès à leurs identités multiples. Cette thèse est menée sous le signe de Bakhtine et du principe dialogique. Elle s’intéresse aux écrivains migrants africains et à leurs œuvres. L’approche est interdisciplinaire: elle articule recherche littéraire et psychologie sociale et culturelle. La méthodologie s’appuie sur le paradigme interprétatif, et consiste en deux corps de corpus: l’analyse littéraire d’œuvres choisies -et l’étude du fait littéraire de la migritude; et des analyses des verbatim des entretiens approfondis menés en Europe et aux Etats-Unis. En nous appuyant donc sur un corpus d'œuvres marquantes et des entretiens avec des écrivains importants, tous contemporains, nous appréhendons le Soi (self) des écrivains migrants africains comme une arène du Moi et un récit polyphonique (Bakhtine, [1987] 2013; Valsiner, 2000; Hermans et Kempen, 2010) ou comme un répertoire de Moi: les Moi-positions, lesquelles regroupent une infinité de voix narratives. Chaque voix possède un lien unique de rattachement au lieu d’accueil, une mémoire particulière de l’origine, des croyances et des poétiques propres, des convictions personnelles. Nos résultats enrichissent les débats constants au sujet de l’existence d’une littérature africaine et au sujet des positionnements identitaires des écrivains d’origine africaine. La contribution essentielle de cette thèse est la proposition d’un modèle dialogique qui reprend les étapes de la construction identitaire des écrivains migrants. Nos travaux contribuent également à la recherche sur la relation entre les œuvres et les expériences des écrivains africains en Occident. / Does African literature exist? The answer to this complex issue has been addressed in different ways. Along this research, focused on how African migrants writers negotiate and manage their muliple and often-conflicting roots in their writing worlds. In which way do they articulate different « voices » when they both live and write in countries such as France, Switzerland and the United States ? Alain Mabanckou and Leonora Miano's works for example provide contrasted narratives in terms of positionings. This dissertation goes along with the growing field of African Studies which emphasizes on identity dynamics, postcolonial and cultural matters in litterature. Drawing on a dialogical and sociocultural perspective in psychology, our findings will contribute to a better understanding of identity dynamics for people facing multiple cultural references in contexts shaped by issues of art, power, and history. This research, conducted within the framework of Bakhtin’s dialogical principle, addresses the issues of African migrant writers and their works. Its interdisciplinary approach merges literary research with social psychology. The methodology is based upon the interpretative paradigm, and consists of the literary analysis of selected works, the study of the literary fact of migritude, and an analysis of the extensive verbatim accounts recorded in Western countries.Based on a corpus of important works and of interviews with major writers, it analyzes the Dialogical Self of African migrant writers either as an “I arena” or as a “polyphonic narrative” (Bakhtine, [1987] Valsiner, 2000 ; Hermans and Kempen, 2010). The self of migrant writers is apprehended as a repertoire of “I” : I-positions that bring together an infinity of narrative voices. Each voice has a unique bond to the host country, a particular memory of origin, beliefs and poetics, personal convictions. Our results enrich the constant debates about both the existence of an African literature and the identity positions of writers of African origin living in the West. Our essential contribution is the design of a model which takes into consideration the stages of their identity construction. This work also contributes to the research on the relationship between their works and the experiences of authors, within their place of transit or establishment.

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2004 / Refer to document

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Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Theatre, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], iv, 57 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-57).