The Author as Cannibal: Rewriting in Francophone Literature as a Postcolonial Genre, 1969–1995

289 Pages·2022·5.959 MB·English

by  Felisa Vergara Reynolds

The Author
as Cannibal

The Autho r
as Cann ibal
Rewriting in Francophone Literature
as a Postcolonial Genre, 1969– 1995
Felisa Vergara Reynolds
University of nebraska Press | LincoLn
© 2021 by the Board of Regents of the University of
Nebraska. All rights reserved
Names: Reynolds, Felisa Vergara, author.
Title: The author as cannibal: rewriting in francophone literature as a postcolonial
genre, 1969– 1995 / Felisa Vergara Reynolds.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical ref-
erences and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021024460
isbn 9781496218421 (hardback)
isbn 9781496230034 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: West Indian literature (French)— History and criticism. | African litera-
ture (French)— History and criticism. | Literature— Adaptations— History and criticism. |
Postcolonialism in literature. | French literature— 20th century— History and criticism. |
Césaire, Aimé. Tempête. | Diop, Boubacar Boris, 1946- Temps de Tamango. | Djebar,
Assia, 1936– 2015. Amour, la fantasia. | Condé, Maryse. Migration des cœurs. | bisac:
literary criticism / European / French | literary criticism / Caribbean & Latin
American | lcgft: Literary criticism. | Interviews.
Classification: lcc pq3940.5 .r49 2022 | ddc 840.9/9729— dc23/eng/20210930
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021024460
Set in Lyon by Laura Buis.
Para Lourdes y Santiago, mis hijos adorados
Para Elena y Fausto, mis padres difuntos
Para Jay, mi corazón

contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: “Almost the Same, but Not
Quite” / “Almost the Same, but Not White”;
or, The Author as Cannibal 1
1. Aimé Césaire’s Une tempête, Cannibalizing
Shakespeare’s The Tempest; or, Who’s Laughing Now? 35
2. Boubacar Boris Diop’s Le temps de Tamango,
a Postmodern Cannibalization; or, Penetrating
“Fortress Europe” 77
3. Assia Djebar’s L’amour, la fantasia, a
Historiographic Cannibalization; or, Dismantling/
Decolonizing History 109
4. Maryse Condé’s La migration des cœurs,
Cannibalizing Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights;
or, a Sublime Phagocytosis 153
Conclusion: The Future of Literary Cannibalism;
or, Addressing the Lingering Questions 199
Appendix: Interviews with Maryse Condé 215
Notes 235
References 245
Index 263

illustrations
1. Scène de cannibalisme au Brésil Americae Tertia
pars Memorabilem provinciae Brasiliae Historiam
continens, by Theodor de Bry 9
2. Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement,
by Eugène Delacroix 128
3. Déjeuner sur l’herbe, by Édouard Manet 210
4. Déjeuner sur l’herbe, by Pablo Picasso, from
Moderna Museet in Stockholm 210
5. “Women of Algiers (Version ‘O’),” by Pablo Picasso 212
ix