Catherine L. Mcglennan Martin Master of Arts
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CATHERINE L. MCGLENNAN MARTIN MASTER OF ARTS A CONTRAPUNTAL ExAmINATION OF SEI ECTED WORKS BY ROGER VAILLAND AND OUSMANE SEMBItNE, 1950 - 1960. SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, FACULTY OF ARTS, DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. APRIL 2001 OCatherine L McGlennan Martin, 2001 Abstract Ibis projectý born out of interests in socialist realist texts of the 1950s and in the West African novel in French, takes works by the French journalist and author Roger Vailland and by the Senegalesewriter and filmmaker Ousmane Semb6ne as its focus. Rather than adopting a conventional comparative approach to these writers, the thesis seeks to apply to their works the theory of contrapuntal reading proposed by Palestinian-bom, American- based academic and writer Edward Said in his 1993 text Cultureand IiVeria§sm- Saidhas elaboratedhis theory of counterpoint in responseto his own dissatisfactionwith traditional comparativism,which attempts, in his view, to consider works against the hierarchicalbackground of the Western canon. Counterpoint has been devisedin order that comparative readings be divested of that hierarchical influence. Ihe term ccounterpoineis a borrowing from musicalterminology and reflectsnot only Said'sinterest in music, but also his ideal that textual readings should take account of all the circumstanceswhich have producedthem, however conflicting, rather than focus solely on those elementswhich appear to offer a harmonious reading; for Said, this often means readingaspects of imperialismin textswhich do not appearostensibly to addressempire. Severalreasons may be offered for the adoption of Saidiancounterpoint in this project: the first is that, while Said'sbooks have attracted much criticism, positive and negative,no sustainedcritique of his theory of contrapuntalreading has yet been advanced;the second is that critics of Said frequently labour under the delusion that his observationsare applicable only to English-languagetexts and that his rightful place is in the English Literature department,notions that this fi-ancophone-focusedCm the term's most inclusive sense)thesis seeks to dispel,citing Said'sclearly-stated interest in francophoneculture and his avoweddebt to fi-ancophonethinkers, particularly Foucault. The fi-ancophonewriters consideredin this project are Roger Vailland and Ousmane Sembýne,the former a metropolitan Frenchauthor, the latter a non-metropolitanfrom the former French colony of Senegal,a country just gaining independencefrom France in 1960,at the closing moments of the period this thesisconsiders. Each of thesewriters is working againsta backgroundof two continents recoveringfrom the SecondWorld War and of increasingresistance in the colonies to being identified with the periphery. The project will consider Vailland's and Sembýne'sworks as it reconfigures and redefines ccentre'and 'periphery. Works by Roger Vailland and Ousmane Sembýnehave been selected to fulfil Said's condition that contrapuntal readingsshould be undertakenof chronologicallyequivalent texts. By cutting across a chronological moment, the reader is able to consider the influences operating in and on given texts at the given historical moment and to read apparently disparatetexts, linked only by chronology, against each other, determining whether silencesand absencesin one text may be renderedaudible and presentby elements of the other. In this way, Saidian counterpoint - proposed as a new praxis of comparativism- seeksto highlight anjnýufficiently acknowledgedand more culturally, geographicallyand historicallycompleý. zpaV-AaMirr of 1950sliterature in French. In addition to attempting to highlight Said's right to a place hitherto denied him in fi-ancophonestudies, this project will also undertake an evaluation of his theory of counterpoint, and in doing so will compensatefor the gap left in Saidianstudies by those critics who mention and criticisecontrapuntal reading, but offer no working model of it. Contents Acknowledgements PI ii List of abbreviations P. 1 Introduction and review of literature P. The 1.950rthe Status. Quo and the Tra&don of MeNoml p.4 Addrujin thePost. -olonial p.22 ,g Iff. TheCanon, Compowdiism and Edward Sdd P.30 Chapter One: Edward Said and the Methodology of Counterpoint P39 L EdvardSddToday p.40 li. CountetpointWbat it is andHow it lVorks p.43 Iff. WbyFnneb and Francopbone Stules Need Sid p.58 IV. Contr4puntalRea&n Appmdmadons p.65 Chapter Two: Place p. 68 L Sdds Place p.70 Ii. Saidand Topq gaphical Injigbts p.75 III. Saidand 1A4 Stramss.Auenuatiq Notionsof Travel p.85 IV. Bombp la umplmsgrandeque k ventrede Phistmir p.92 V. Cboses pvdrpomr 1'exil ,P. 109 vueseng , T/7. La etAJ fiche& defmnitm, la um n'itdt qmuneile? p. 116 VH, Wadiq in, Diggg up.- Vd&and,Sembine and Sid p.136 . Chapter Three: Voice p. 142 L Tkeonesof Voice p.143 Ii. Ix Docker noir Aphasia ,p. 160 Iff. Un Hommeseuk Hetei%losda p.178 Iv. RecaEng_bmeSdd ,p. 200 . Chapter Four: Memory p. 204 L TheBiginnings ofMemog p.210 17. ThePmpagation ofMemog p.213 11.4 Repeihýox p.213 Rd. EffacedMemones Amsten Camms p.218 and , iff. lxs Boutsik bois& Diem p.225 nli Oruliýyand Memog p.225 IHA Ta&maxirImages. -Meta phoramdMemog p.231 . h1a MemogAfam)5uLz6on. - Recasfing Realiýy'ih the Women's Afxrh p.234 IV. RqgerVdIland's Bon Md bonaik Fi6ionalRecapitu4dons p238 V. MiseenaýymeinleDockern andla p.24.9 W. TheAn Remembeiing theSdence Forgelfing p.257 of and of , Summary and Conclusions p. 266 L Summag p267 III SomeConclujions p270 Iff. Find Thomgbts p283 Bibliography p. 288 i Acknowledgements Many peoplehave supportedme during the writing of this thesis.In particular,I would like to thank the followinl-:,.my parents,John and MargaretMcGlennan, for their consistentsupport, financial and otherwise;the Departmentof FrenchLanguage and Literature at the University of Glasgow,under the direction of ProfessorNo6l Peacock,for teachingopportunities and for financialassistance for research trips, as well as for more generalkindness and encouragement;the McGlashanTrust for early financial support; my PostolonialLiterature and IdendDi students in the French Department at the University of St. Andrews in Session2000-2001, for many stimulatingconversations on some of the texts included in this project. Very specialthanks are due to my supervisor,Professor Charles Forsdick - now of the University of Liverpool - for his generosityin sharinghis immenseknowledge, for his unflaggingenthusiasm for this project, evenwhen he had severalof his own to complete,and for a generalwillingness to help when it I was often - indeed,usually - aboveand beyondthe call of duty. Finally, I would like to thank my husband,Iain Martin, for his patienceand for his support of every kind during this project and at all other times. ii List of Abbreviations The following are abbreviationsof frequently-citedtexts by RogerVailland and Ousmane Semb6ne: B= Borvboudour BED = Les Boutsde bois de Dieu BPBO = Bon Pied,bon ail CVE = Chosesvues en EWte DN = Le Dockernoir JHS = Un jeuneHomme seml OPMEP =0 Pays,mon beaupeiple R= La Riunion Introduction and Review of Literature Wbatto readandwbat to domitb that rea&ng, that is tbefu4lformof thequestion. 1 Chatto 1 Edward W. Said,Culture and Imperiafism (London: Vt ntage,1994), p. 70 (first publ. London: & Windus, 1993). 2 The title of this project points clearlyto the authoes desireto undertakeresearch focused on more than simply the work of a single writer. What is less immediately obvious, perhaps, is that the thesis is not a comparativeone, in any conventional sense.This avoidance of the traditional comparative model is deliberate,since that model often dependson the assumptionof a specific literary canon for its yardstick and is, besides, usuallyself-fulfilling in nature. Rather,this is a piece of researchwhich seeksto consider works by two authors in the light of a theoreticalmodel - 'counterpoint' - offered by the Palestinianintellectual Edward Saidin his book Cultureand LVeria&m as an alternative to the hierarchicalmodes of comparativismwhich he identifiesas the norm. Further, this researchis not intended as an end in itself. it aims not only to examinethe efficacy of Saidian contrapuntal reading in general, but also to consider Said's place, hitherto inadequatelyrecognised, in French and francophone Studies.2 This is not, therefore, a traditional French Studies thesis, as it has recourse to a breadth of reference which exceedsthe confines that a traditional project would imply. In this, it owes a great deal to Said, whose own fields of reference are vast and often seeminglydisparate; Said has adopteda nuancedversion of Goethe's Ve)tfiteratur,in that he championsthe selectionof intellectuallyvaluable texts from a rangeof contexts,but doesnot favour the Eurocentric nature of that selectionas it was madeearly in the twentieth century.3 In order, then, that Said'stheory of contrapuntal be evaluated,something of the samebreadth of reference has been retainedin the preparationof this project. 2 The distinction between'Francophone' and Trancophone'is understoodas follows: the former is an exclusiveterm, pertaining to postcolontalliterature in French;the latter, an inclusive term, pertaining to the French-speakingperson or to French-languagrtexts in general. 3 Saidwrites: 'Goethe'sideas of Welifiteramr-a conceptthat waffled betweenthe notion of "great books" and a vaguesynthesis of ad the world's literatures- wasvery important to professionalscholars of comparativeliterature