New Ideas of France: The Reconceptualization of Nation-Based History and Culture in Alain Mabanckou's Demain J’Aurai Vingt Ans

Abstract

This article focuses on Alain Mabanckou's recent novel Demain j’aurai vingt ans (2010), which chronicles the daily adventures of Michel, a young boy growing up in Pointe-Noire, Congo in the 1970s. Michel reads French poetry and listens to French music, but he understands these cultural references in his own way. He also engages with the history and cultures of other regions of the world, as he listens to the news each night on his father's radio. Through this portrayal of daily life in Congo in the 1970s, Mabanckou's novel presents a new engagement with national cultures and narratives. French culture has never been distinctly French, he tells us, and neither France nor Congo exists without a consideration of its place in the world.