International Journal of Francophone Studies - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2001

The present article examines the theoretical and literary writings of Édouard Glissant in light of key concepts and features that have been central to his thoughts on cultural diversity. To address these, this study focuses on the notions of trace, opacity and the complexity of collective memory. It points to his experimentation with literary genres, his strategic use of marronnage, his playful but conscious manipulation of narrative conventions, viewpoints and techniques, and views them as resistance strategies or weapons of defence against a singular system of domination. I shall argue that his extensive discussion on the interactive plurality of relations aims at transforming the imagination by valuing different ways of knowing, perceiving, relating and representing individuals and collectivities not only in the Caribbean but in the 'Whole-World'. These philosophical and experiential traces in Glissant's writings offer a multiplicity of possibilities: they can twist and turn, divide or diffract, soar or plunge, revert and divert, while engaging curious readers to seek in a myriad of ways an open-ended inquiry into the human condition.

This article explores the notion of displacement in Driss Chraïbi's novels: Une Enquête au pays, La Mère du printemps and Naissance à l'aube. The word 'displacement' is used here in all its acceptions including geographical expatriation, cultural and linguistic distanciation from the fatherland and the mother tongue as well as acculturation and bilingualism. But 'displacement' also refers to Chraïbi's marginalisation within literature as a Moroccan writing in French, his 'politically incorrect' opinions, and his rejection of the literary, intellectual world. Various types of linguistic displacements are examined: in particular, the insertion of Arab words, idioms and Qur'anic verses within French sentences, with or without italics, footnote, translation, and explanatory context. These linguistic displacements are also used as a tool to establish his position, as well as to displace the readers to the margins.

Cities are a major theme in African Literature. The city and its own language are often complemented by the relationships among individuals that occupy it as well as by their relationships with the city itself. Therefore, this particular place becomes a pluridenotative network formed by the cultural signified and the spatial signifying. Moreover, the City plays a mediating role between its development in the past and experience in the present. It is therefore, a place for meeting and hence opposing views. Starting from this assumption, we consider Ousmane Socé's fictional text, Karim, Roman sénégalais where the city is not only present but also is fundamental for the action and the evolution of the main character.

The Eighth Pacific Arts Festival was held late last year in New Caledonia. This was a chance to showcase the Territory's development following the signing of the Noumea Accord in 1998. The fortnight of spectacle featuring over 2000 participants brought out a pan-Pacific concern to synthesise 'tradition' and 'modernity'. The Festival included writing and contemporary art, and provided a number of fora in which artists and administrators discussed common concerns beyond folkloric representations of culture. The place of the art of 'first nations' in museums was also raised. Finally, these fora revealed some divergence in approach between the francophone and anglophone Pacific.

This article is a reading of Tahar Ben Jelloun's La Nuit sacrée and its Arabic translation. Its main argument is that, despite its success in France, La Nuit sacrée remains essentially a subverted representation of Moroccan, and by extension Maghrebi, Arab and Islamic, realities. Contrary to what Ben Jelloun's apologists try to make of it, this text cannot be said to represent resistance of any kind to oppression both internal and external. Far from it, the text renders its writer a useful tool at the service of those who still maintain the degradation and subversion of all their Others. Likewise, its Arabic translation employs calculated discursive choices that make it alien in Arabic. After all, it is not a translation in the conventional sense of the term since its French source text is itself an instance of translation.