Biocentrism as Magical Realism, Realism and Hybrid Transculturation: Fatou Diome’s Innovative Fictionalization of Biocentric Characterization through Transnational Testimonials in Kétala

Abstract

Fatou Diome’s writing constantly enriches and renews Francophone African literary production, especially in the realms of characterization, intertextuality, and transnationalism. Indeed, her work delineates the body and space in ways that expand the limits of this literary field further, thus making it more inclusive of our most intimate objects as characters along with non-African intertextual references. Her novel Kétala produces a creative form of narration that brings multiple voices and existential sensibilities in an effort to challenge any homogeneous conceptions and representations of identity, whether human or textual. This paper examines Diome’s enriching renewal of literary creativity through biocentrism as magic realism and through a hybrid transculturation that transcends continental borders. It argues that Diome carries out this innovative renewal by constructing a fantastic process of memorialization built around Kétala’s main female protagonist, Mémoria, and her lifelike experiences in national and transnational spaces, as well as her untimely death.