Fatou Diome Research Articles

Exiles, Travellers and Vagabonds: Rethinking Mobility in Francophone Women’s Writing. Edited By Kate Averis and Isabel Hollis-Touré.

This rich collection explores literary representations of women’s mobility in the context of accelerating transnational movement and widespread social and political anxiety about border-crossings. In their knowledgeable Introduction, the editors recognize the historical tendency to depict mobility as a masculine phenomenon and the need to engage with the specificities of women’s movement, before suggesting how representations of women’s mobility might rethink traditional associations of women with home and nation, trouble categories of movement and the genres associated with them, and give expression to new modes of female subjectivity. The book’s twelve chapters and Afterword bring together distinguished and emerging scholars to reflect on the work of a variety of writers whose real or imagined journeys span the French-speaking world. Appropriately the book begins at home with Isabel Hollis-Touré’s subtle analysis of women’s sense of estrangement from their domestic environment — an estrangement that may catalyse movement — via a consideration of the work of Cameroonian author Léonora Miano. The interior exile that motivates or results from movement is a key theme of the collection as a whole. Jeannette den Toonder explores the psychological displacement of the migrant in her reading of Vietnamese-Québecoise Kim Thúy’s poetic prose, while Siobhán McIlvanney’s chapter on Algerian writers Malika Mokkadem and Maïssa Bey focuses on the ways in which women trapped in a rigidly patriarchal society are forced into an imaginative ‘internal exile’ in which the mind travels beyond the material constraints of the present. Indeed, one strength of the collection is the care with which the contributors reflect on different modes of movement — virtual and real, chosen and forced, legal and illegal, perilous and playful — and the ways these intersect and overlap. In his insightful chapter on women’s writing in post-earthquake Haiti, for example, Charles Forsdick pays close attention to differential forms of displacement and embeds his readings in an intersectional understanding of mobilities as shaped by class, ethnicity, and gender. Furthermore, while contributors are attuned to the subversive potentials of female mobility — see, for example, Dúnlaith Bird’s engaging analysis of Isabelle Eberhardt’s ‘vagabondage’ — the limits of notions of nomadism as liberation are also recognized. Christopher Hogarth’s study of Fatou Diome considers the Senegalese writer’s tempering of her early portrayals of successful female migration, while Jane Hiddleston’s compelling reading of Leïla Sebbar emphasizes the persistent sense of loss and rootlessness that flows beneath her apparent embrace of hybridity. The final chapters explore the potential of francophone women’s writing of mobility to construct new forms that do not merely reflect on the world but act within it: Anna-Louise Milne elegantly presents the playful possibilities of Louise Kaplan’s ‘transnational poetics’, while Margarita Alfaro identifies what she calls ‘ectopic literature’ with the creation of a modern female myth that re-imagines the relationship between the individual and democracy. This diverse collection breaks down traditional categories of displacement to produce a more precise and variegated landscape of inter- and intra-cultural movement and the itineraries of those who move through it. As such, it is both valuable and timely.

Belonging and unbelonging in Fatou Diome’s The belly of the Atlantic

ABSTRACTThis article explores the issue of belonging and unbelonging in The belly of the Atlantic by Fatou Diome. The central factor of reflexivity in the novel is underscored by the elements of positionality, auto-ethnography and intertextuality that promote representations of the self, as well as of local and global socio-political and religious concerns. In this semi-autobiographical narrative, Salie, the protagonist, is portrayed as a migrant writer whose multifaceted identity promotes significant insights into the underbelly of migrant experiences and the split subjectivities of African migrants in Europe. The complex dialogues that result from intertextuality emerge both explicitly and implicitly in significant areas of The belly of the Atlantic, thereby establishing links with writers in local and global places. The intertwining of fact and fiction in this third-generation Senegalese novel evokes a journey from roots to routes through transnational linguistic hybridity and the interweaving of genres. Although Salie’s positionality is shaped by her challenging movements between local and global spaces and places, this fluidity promotes her agency and articulation as an individual, and has the effect of intensifying creativity and self-reflexivity. However, the multiple possibilities of gender activism are not fully explored within the ambit of the human rights agenda in the novel, and the protagonist’s feelings of belonging and unbelonging lead to ambivalence in her representation of Muslim identities in a traditional African context. As the novel has been positively received globally, this factor raises the strong possibility of essentialism in readers’ responses to the cultural and religious identities represented in this text.

Clandestine or Conquistadores? Beyond Sensational Headlines, or a Literature of Urgency

In this article I propose to examine a vast range of works that deal with clandestine immigration. They include (but are not limited to) Les Clandestins (Youssouf Amine Elalamy), Cannibales (Mahi Binebine), Clandestins en Mediterranee (Fawzi Mellah), Partir (Tahal Ben Jelloun), Celles qui attendent (Fatou Diome), and Le Paradis du Nord (Essomba). The purpose of my essay is to outline the way clandestine literature describes the dream that immigrants have of Europe in general, and of France in particular, as an El Dorado they look to conquer. The El Dorado is, as we know, a myth, but in the context of this literature, it is also a cultural myth—as Barthes defines it in Mythologies —whose ultimate function is to “transform history into nature.” Consequently, the aim of this study is, first, to explore how the “culture industry” shapes the myth of the “European El Dorado” in the migrants’ minds. Secondly, I analyze the mechanisms used to construct this myth as it is suggested in the various novels and, ultimately, I discuss the ideological foundations on which this myth is based, or the “vol de language” through which it is articulated.

Performing the Immigrant: The Works of Calixthe Beyala and Fatou Diome

This paper proposes a study of the fictional works of two African women authors in French, Calixthe Beyala and Fatou Diome, and the various ways in which they explore constructions of identity in the transnational individual. Identifying forms are explored in their works in the manipulations of personal appearance, in more “official” representations such as documents and identification papers, and in other individual performances of a certain vision of the “authentic” African immigrant. Special attention will be paid to the figure of the author as a character within each text, and the relation of this particular authorial performance to the writers themselves. This paper seeks to explore several questions, based on three axes of analysis. First, I investigate the performative nature of identity as demonstrated by characters in these works. What aspects of the performance are particular to the migrant or transnational individual? Second, I examine the intersections of migrant identity and gender. How are performativity and gender related? How is the migrant experience embodied in a gendered individual? Finally, I analyze the image of the writer within each work. Who are the author figures in these texts? How do these characters perform an authorial identity? How do these characters perform an authorial identity, and can these two authors be said to represent authors differently? Using selections of their recent work, this paper will demonstrate how performativity intersects with the contemporary migrant fiction in the texts of Beyala and Diome.

Claude Simon: situations éd. par Paul Dirkx, Pascal Mougin

postnationalism with critics who dispute its representation of the postcolonial subject as “an uprooted, deterritorialized, unfettered, and free-floating migrant” (xiii). Interestingly, gender is the paradigm that underscores the novelty of her analysis, which dwells on Francophone African migrant literatures. The book breaks new ground by deconstructing previous readings of nationalism that ignore the gender paradigm, and by correlating this oversight to their celebration of postnationalism. Engaging three migrant women writers, Coly notes the continuity between“the gender politics of anticolonial nationalism” and those of male/female postcolonial postnationalist narratives (xxv). Her subsequent analysis of postindependent home and belonging as elusive, exclusivist, inviting, and too heteropatriarchal for migrant African women is refreshing. The critic reveals the connected experiences of Calixthe Beyala, Ken Bugul, and Fatou Diome in Africa and Europe. Dealing with Bugul’s novels, the first and second chapters address the female migrant’s experience of the nation and Europe as a non-place and question the reintegration of home and the impact of homesickness on the narrative of homecoming respectively. The relevancy of the nation for women depicted by Beyala is the focus of chapter 3 where Coly correlates the dissident and culturally violent space-clearing gesture of the lesbian desire and their exclusion by the postcolonial/heteropatriarchal nation. If affiliation is positively read as women’s alternative means to attain home, Beyala’s transnationalism is less so, given her obsessive French tropism. In fact, chapter 4 echoes Coly’s critique of Beyala’s Belleville novels as “colonialist narratives of Africa” (71) and addresses the politics of interracial marriage and prostitution as pathways into the French house. Coly also notes how women create contact and appropriate space in France (ch. 5). The final chapters unveil the negative effects of colonial globalization on Senegal and the relevance of the nation, which appear through Diome’s demystification of France and reinstatement of her homeland.Coly ultimately relates identification with the hostland, homeland, and homecoming to gender politics and social status. It features Diome and Beyala’s contrasted depictions of the African woman and the treatment of her body in France. In articulating a bold challenge of the preeminence of the migrant through a concise reading that significantly correlates African women, migration, and nation, Coly refers repeatedly to the ‘nervous condition,’ which informs the trio’s oftentimes ambiguous narrative of home. However, discussing this trope separately would have added valuable substance to this theoretically sound work. Colby College (ME) Mouhamedoul A. Niang Dirkx, Paul, et Pascal Mougin, éd. Claude Simon: situations. Lyon: ENS, 2011. ISBN 978-2-84788-302-2. Pp. 203. 23 a. Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1985; added to the required reading for the agrégation in 1997–98; since 2000 Simon has attracted more critical interest than 220 FRENCH REVIEW 88.1 Reviews 221 any French novelist except Proust. In this volume, eleven scholars discuss how Simon’s fictions enfold the personal—autobiography, dwellings, family, and history—without being dominated or shaped by it. He is neither dependent on real-world referents, nor scornful of them like his contemporaries the New Novelists. Simon’s configurations of referents are systemic but not systematic; and he may eliminate toponymics. His Nobel acceptance speech explains that for him the work of writing produces meaning. The newness created by this work is the adventure of writing. Musical metaphors explain his art. His novels resemble the compositions by those classical and jazz musicians who combine citation with transformation.As a writer,he feels an affinity with artisans and their ethos of craftsmanship. Alternatively, he supports or denies the ideal that living with literature can improve humans. He consistently resists the tyranny of aesthetic norms (preached by the New Novelists, particularly Jean Ricardou), as well as the moralistic imperatives of the Existentialists’ littérature engagée. In this volume, the most informative starting point for non-specialists would be Pascal Mougin’s “La mésalliance parentale” (41–52). Simon’s father was a navy captain, a son of peasants, who proved himself and earned advancement through the discipline of enduring harsh climates and facing dangers, deferring the gratification of rewards. His mother came from an aristocratic family of wealthy landowners that...

What Will the New Generation Generate? Gendering Accumulation in Fatou Diome’s Celles qui attendent

In this paper I focus on the penultimate installment of the oeuvre of the much-celebrated Franco-Senegalese writer Fatou Diome, whose largely autobiographical work has garnered a wide following and a lucrative contract with the Flammarion publishing house. I propose that Diome’s 2010 novel Celles qui attendent strongly contributes to a discourse surrounding the roles of males and females in an African economy increasingly dominated by migration. Diome started as a writer who portrayed the empowered role of the female migrant, who is able to accumulate financial capital in Europe and send it back to Africa in order for males to slowly hoard goods and start businesses. Her more recent work, however, has been marked by a shift to reflect a portrait of Senegalese society and migration that is backed by sociological studies: men take on the role of migrants, tempted by “marchands d’illusions” 'merchants of illusions,' but are also determined to get away from social pressures in order to accumulate their own set of experiences in the world, at a distance from the expectations of a traditional African society. Women, on the other hand, are left in extreme proximity to the problems of everyday life on a cash-starved continent, as they have to go about the business of surviving and raising children, engaging in many forms of hoarding that have to do with accumulating finance, memories and myths.

Images et mirages des migrations dans les littératures et les cinémas d’Afrique francophone ed. by Françoise Naudillon, Jean Ouédraogo

épure, ce qui renforce le sentiment d’un montage idéologique donnant de la réalité une vision construite intellectuellement. Néanmoins, c’est cette déconstruction du temps qui donne au film toute sa force. University of Louisiana, Lafayette Panagnimba Parfait Bonkoungou NAUDILLON, FRANÇOISE, et JEAN OUÉDRAOGO, éd. Images et mirages des migrations dans les littératures et les cinémas d’Afrique francophone. Montréal: Mémoire d’encrier, 2011. ISBN 978-2-923713-40-3. Pp. 218. $29,50 Can. Displacement, exile, immigration: these sources of strife, both local and global, appear on a regular basis in the news media as well as the arts. Additionally, the related themes of space, identity, and hybridity are also topics currently of interest to scholars studying Francophone literature and film. Yet if such weighty concerns are certainly à la mode in these first decades of the new millennium, this does not necessarily signify that they are new, nor that researchers have yet fully unpacked their complexity, as Naudillon and Ouédraogo demonstrate in their co-edited essay collection. Spanning the time from pre-Independence to the early 2000s, countries from the Maghreb to West Africa and beyond, and even continents (Haiti and Martinique have their place, as does Western Europe), this collection of twelve essays pursues myriad avenues of inquiry into the issues surrounding various forms of migration. Moreover, it provides a valuable introduction not only to some dominant themes of African literature and film, but also a vast array of filmmakers and writers, from the well-known (among them Ousmane Sembène, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Yamina Benguigui, Laurent Cantet, Dany Laferrière, and Fatou Diome) to the less familiar, at least to this reviewer (including but not limited to Éliane de Latour, Naceur Ktari, Farida Benlyazid, and Henri Lopès). Readers will appreciate that the collection seems to make an effort to represent both genders, although the balance still tips in favor of men. The essays take a variety of approaches to the topic of (im)migration, all of which in some way answer the following questions: Who goes where? Why? What are the consequences? These queries are addressed at times with singleauthor studies, such as Névine El Nossey’s work on the textual and geographical topography of the desert in two texts by Malika Mokeddem, or Mhana Amrani’s commentary on the role of humor in tackling the serious issue of “repatriation assistance” in Mahmoud Zemmouri’s film Prends 10 000 balles et casse-toi. Other essays adopt a comparative approach, for example Clément Dessy’s look at African students’ first encounters with Paris in narratives by Ousmane Socé and Aké Loba. Also notable in this vein and representative of the collection’s title are texts penned by Jean Ouédraogo, Yolaine Parisot, Françoise Naudillon, and Stéphanie Bérard, all of whom juxtapose literature and film. Finally, some authors take a more panoramic view, particularly filmmaker Monique Crouillère in her helpful piece, “Cinéma africain et immigration,” which opens the collection with an excellent overview of African Francophone cinema. Although the essays are not always linked in terms of critical approach, geography, time period, or genre, a certain number of themes recur. As stated above, each piece asks who travels where and why. Some involve the exode rural in-country, others the harrowing trip to Europe. Some address the return home, Reviews 625 raising along the way the thorny question of just what and where “home” is. The question of identity also surfaces many times, as does that of intra- and extratextual space, whether physical, mental, or both. A number of studies contrast West and North Africa, and a few bring up the question of Francophonie versus une littérature-monde. A multidisciplinary perspective allows for the exploration of nationalism, globalization, integration, hybridity, and multiculturalism, which the authors handle with considerable insight and skill. Images and Mirages represents a welcome addition to the field of Francophone studies that is sure to interest novices and experts alike. University of the Cumberlands (KY) Laura Dennis PANH, RITHY, réal. Duch ou le maître des forges de l’enfer. CDP, 2012. Le 3 f...

Dire le social dans le roman francophone contemporain ed. by Justin K. Bisanswa, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

The essays are divided into three groups. The first group, titled “La bombe Dada,” contains six essays, which consider well-known and some lesser-known aspects of Dadaism. The movement is seen within the avant-garde’s historical continuity—its connection with Futurism is discussed in the first essay, “Tristan Tzara, fourrier du futurisme”—and within the cultural context of its time—by raising the issue of the ambivalent relationship between Dadaism and psychoanalysis in “Dada est un microbe vierge.” The political and the international dimensions of the movement, both modeled on anarchism, have a central position in Béhar’s consideration of Dadaism. In the second section, “Lames de fonds spectaculaires,” Béhar examines specific instances of the avant-garde spectacle, paying particular attention to the theater of and around surrealism. Essays on the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, Antonin Artaud, director and actor Sylvain Itkine, and the films of Roger Vitrac are framed by two more general discussions of surrealist and Dada theater, its influences and goals. The last and probably most interesting section of the book showcases Béhar’s full command of Surrealism’s history, encounters, and behind-the-scenes exchanges . With the exception of two essays—one devoted to Jean Paulhan and his friendship with André Breton, the other addressing Dali’s scatological imagery and obsessions—this section approaches Surrealism’s various implications and endeavors as a movement. The limits of the movement are explored, either as the sometimes porous demarcation lines between Surrealism and groups like “Le Grand Jeu,” or with respect to its geographical frontiers, as in a fascinating discussion of Surrealism in the Canary Islands. Again, the politics of the avant-garde come to the foreground, both in general considerations of what it means for an artistic movement to be political, and through an assessment of Surrealism’s attitude during the Algerian War and the preparation of the “Déclaration sur le droit à l’insoumission dans la guerre d’Algérie.” Finally, the literary credentials and preoccupations of Surrealism are pieced together in a discussion of the literary criticism in surrealist publications, and through consideration of Surrealism’s representational strategies with regard to the literary topos of the landscape. Avoiding wide theoretical claims and relying almost exclusively on French critical studies, this book reads as a fragmented fresco of the French avant-garde, mimicking by its structure the avant-garde itself, and reminding us thereby how a discontinuous project managed nonetheless to be “d’un seul tenant.” Princeton University (NJ) Effie Rentzou BISANSWA, JUSTIN K., et KASEREKA KAVWAHIREHI, éd. Dire le social dans le roman francophone contemporain. Paris: Champion, 2011. ISBN 978-2-74532031 -5. Pp. 601. 115 a. A weighty volume in all senses, Dire le social offers a preface by Jean Bessière, co-editors’ introduction, and index, in addition to thirty-two substantive essays often to thirty pages each by authors from three continents, many of them wellknown to Francophone scholars. A special bonus is the postface by Bernard Mouralis, who retraces his own intellectual trajectory as he documents the often difficult evolution of Francophone studies in France. While it does not cut a wide swath through Francophone studies (two-thirds of the essays are devoted to sub-Saharan African literature, whereas five treat the Maghreb and two the Reviews 563 Caribbean, with one each for Tahiti and Egypt), the volume promises a rare treat for Africanists especially insofar as many essays examine authors emerging in the past decade (Alain Mabanckou, Leonora Miano, and Fatou Diome), along with lesser-studied writers in the African canon (Georges Ngal, Alioum Fantouré, Werewere Liking, Aminata Sow Fall, and Ken Bugul), and more standard fare (Ahmadou Kourouma, Mongo Beti, Henri Lopes, and V.I. Mudimbe). In mapping out in their introduction the parameters of what “saying the social” means and what creative forms it can take, Bisanswa and Kavwahirehi seek to extricate the Francophone novel from its imprisonment in imitative models of classic realism and to distance their project from equally reductive forms of sociological criticism that are derived from, and limited by, sociological methodologies. They exhort readers to conceptualize a new realism that responds to the urgent need for a parole publique to...

Moorings and mythology: Le Ventre de l'Atlantique and the immigrant experience

Analyzing Fatou Diome's 2003 novel Le Ventre de l'Atlantique, this article explores its treatment of the international migration system, particularly the causes of migration between Senegal and France and the social ills that go along with this, as well as the novel's location in the genealogy of Francophone literature. It argues that Diome's position is ambiguous, portraying the principal causes of migration as intellectual and cultural, rooted in a mythologized image of France, yet prescribing an economic solution to the problem: Diome depicts the (largely autobiographical) protagonist, Salie, financing a local business with French capital for her brother in an effort to dissuade him from leaving Senegal. This article also examines the novel's exploration of identity, belonging, and memory through the protagonist's engagement with the act of writing. It argues that, in particular, Diome illuminates the lesser-known marginalization faced by ‘failed’ migrants in their home society, and how migration can lead to a persistent state of alienation even among those who return home. Prenant comme sujet le roman Le Ventre de l'Atlantique de Fatou Diome paru en 2003, cet article analyse sa conception du système international de la migration, notamment les causes de la migration entre le Sénégal et la France et les inconvénients sociaux qu'elle peut entrainer, ainsi que la place qu'occupe le roman dans la lignée de la littérature francophone. L'article propose que la pensée de Diome au sujet de la migration est quelque peu troublée, mettant l'accent sur les motifs culturels et intellectuels du problème tout en cherchant une solution économique: au juste, Salie, la protagoniste assez autobiographique du roman, arrive à convaincre son frère de rester au Sénégal en raison d'un transfert de fonds qu'elle effectue de la France pour lui financer une boutique. Cet article considère également la figuration des idées de l'identité, du sentiment d'appartenance, et de la mémoire, que le roman aborde à travers l'écriture pratiquée par la protagoniste. Particulièrement, l'article propose que Le Ventre de l'Atlantique rende plus nette la réalité plutôt méconnue de la périphérisation que peuvent subir les migrants dits ‘échoués’ une fois rentrés chez eux. Mots-clés: migration; littérature francophone; périphérisation; mythologie de la migration; France; Sénégal; Fatou Diome

Celles qui attendent by Fatou Diome

Utilizing his prodigious talents and lifetime experience as a prankster, Achille devises a clever scheme both to teach Sigrid a lesson and release Zoë from the bonds of a marriage she wants to escape. The plot succeeds brilliantly. The denouement becomes a modern illustration of the medieval proverb of à trompeur trompeur et demi. The novel ends with a big surprise. We learn that the wife Paul has been referring to in the present tense since the first page is actually Zoë, with whom he fell in love while he was sheltering her from Charles after their separation. They enjoy a happy life together with their daughter watching police stories every evening on television. Every so often they still hear from Achille when he wants to enlist their assistance in a new escapade. The bond formed by the trio of protagonists and the adventures they enjoy together remind the reader of Jules Romains’s concept of unanimisme, as exemplified in his novel Les copains. Their whimsical sense of humor also has the daring harmlessness of the protagonists of Marcel Aymé. Perhaps the most endearing quality of Deutsch’s novel is the way the narrator Paul invites us into his inner life with all its peculiarities and foibles but also his fundamental kindness and humanity. University of Denver (CO) James P. Gilroy DIOME, FATOU. Celles qui attendent. Paris: Flammarion, 2010. ISBN 978-2-0812-4563-1. Pp. 327. 20 a. Née en 1968 au Sénégal et vivant en France depuis 1990, cette auteure attira l’attention des critiques et des lecteurs avec son roman Le ventre de l’Atlantique dans lequel elle mettait en scène des personnages qui émigrent ou qui se préparent à émigrer en France. Ces situations courantes aujourd’hui créent de nombreux problèmes sociaux et personnels et elles offrent un choix infini de possibilit és romanesques. Dans Celles qui attendent, l’auteure raconte l’histoire de deux femmes qui habitent sur l’île de Niodior. Rêvant d’améliorer sa position sociale et économique, chacune d’elles pousse un de ses fils à s’exiler pour trouver un emploi bien rémunéré. Malheureusement, comme ils partent clandestinement, ils ont des difficultés à en trouver. Sur ce schéma, Diome décrit la vie quotidienne au village, expliquant la situation économique des pêcheurs locaux qui voient leur prise diminuer à cause des gros chalutiers d’entreprises internationales. Elle évoque la situation difficile des femmes dont les maris sont soit polygames, soit malades. Elle met en lumière les jalousies et les mesquineries villageoises. Elle parle des dangers auxquels les exilés sont confrontés: le voyage pour atteindre l’Espagne dans une pirogue peu faite pour les grandes traversées, l’impossibilité de s’intégrer sans les bons documents, mais aussi la dégradation morale car les deux jeunes hommes doivent accepter des métiers honteux pour survivre. L’attente est le thème principal. Évidemment, les deux mères attendent dans l’anxiété des nouvelles de leurs fils aussi bien que des améliorations dans leurs vies. Si elles ne peuvent rien faire en ce qui concerne leurs enfants, elles ne restent pas inactives au village. Elles montent une petite affaire, mais bientôt le microcr édit les ruine. Elles ne se laissent pas écraser par cet échec. L’une d’elle marie son fils absent à une jeune fille qu’il aimait et ce mariage lui offre confort moral et quelques bénéfices. Pourtant, elle a des remords car la jeune fille aime un autre homme et a même un enfant de lui. En effet, au thème de l’attente se greffe celui Reviews 587 de l’amour; celui des mères pour leurs fils, celui de ceux-ci pour des jeunes femmes, l’amour de l’une d’elle pour un villageois qu’elle peut enfin épouser une fois devenue veuve, mais aussi la force de pardonner celle qui a péché et l’ami avec qui elle a fauté. En fait, l’amour adoucit toutes les surprises amenées par le destin. Car rien n’arrive exactement comme elles l’avaient rêvé. D’autres...

GESTURING TO AN EMPTY THEATRE? Author, Text and Audience in the Fiction of Fatou Diome and Aïssatou Diamanka‐Besland

Fatou Diome and Aïssatou Diamanka‐Besland are Senegalese women migrant novelists who have addressed the theme of irregular migration between Senegal and France in their literature. The authors, who live in France, write within the context of increased irregular migration and its associated dangers. They also write during a time of increased, and often hyperbolic, public and official discourses surrounding the extent of irregular migration. The authors’ treatment of the theme of migration raises questions concerning the relationship between the Senegalese novelist, her text and her audience. It also raises questions regarding the unique and complex positioning of the migrant writer.

Wolves of the Atlantic

COVER FEATURE Wolves of the Atlantic Fatou Diome Known forher "poignant and inspired epigrammatic observations that skewer a very real sense of the immigrant experience" inFrance, Fatou Diome often uses theAtlantic coast of Senegal, where she was born, as a setting forher fiction. Editorial note: From ?tonnants Voyageurs: Nouvelles voix d'Afrique, copyright ? 2001 by Fatou Diome. English translation copyright ? 2010 by Helen Dickinson. Published by arrangement with the French Publishers' Agency. Ayoung man still, he runs past me as swift as an arrow. He runs. The dust follows him. He runs farther, following an invis ible line thatcuts thevillage in two. Suddenly he hesitates, takes one step to the right,one to the left,stumbles, falls,pivots abruptly,measures the distance between himself and the crowd chasing him, and gets up. But todo what? To live!Yes, to tryand live.His eyes tellhim he has no choice. So he resumes his race toward nowhere, toward life. I'm afraid of his harried look, of theburning and gasping breath thatbrushed against me. I'm afraid for him, as he runs toward nothing, toward everything. On themain streetofNiodior, Dinguar?, the pursuers stream by inwaves, dragging with them all thosewho trust in the strengthof theirbiceps and their calves. Determined as mercenaries, boys with nerves of steel armed with bats, stones, and machetes hurlwords ofhatred like fireballs in the marathon runner's path. I step back, cower against a fence.The mob passes beforeme, ledby a cousin ofmy mother. This last shouts out the runner's fate: "If they catch him, theywill firstdrag him naked through thevillage, pull out all his nails one by one, castratehim, and serve him his testiclesas a last meal, thenkillhim likea dog, bludgeon him to death." Iwant tohear all, to see all. So I run as fastas I can, keeping behind them.They promise him a thousand barbaric acts,because, theycry, the man is impious. Some years back, he had dared take the virginityofone theirown and leave herwith child, a bastard. The crime isnow old, and the shamed girl since married, but anger still simmers in attics. The arrival of thedespised fatherhas ignited the village, hirrdng it into the tornado now tearing up the barriers that civilization had strived to erect between mankind and his hatred. The man runs. He can't hear the words of his furious judges, but the sound of theirpour ding feetgives rhythmto thebeat ofhis heart, confirm ing his plight.Man is a wolf toman! Greetings, Hobbes! To you I offer a pagan amen to the trans migration of thesoul! Come back soon as a dolphin and you will see the skeletal remains of love, the girl-mothers drowned with their lovers and their babies in thebelly of theAtlantic. He runs still.He has been turned into prey, knows he is prey. He wants to be an opossum and feigndeath to escape thehunterswho poison Cupid's arrows. They're here! The man climbs a fence and lands in the courtyard.The crowd does the same, and the fence collapses. They all fall. IsGod barring thepath of thevery regimentwho claims to act inHis name? The women chatting in the courtyard scream and run in all directions. The fugitivemanages to get out and heads to the west. This isnot thedirection onewould face topray, but itis the way he goes to seek salvation. To the sea. Islanders always seek fugitives on land. To them the sea is a wall. You'd have tobe crazy to go up against it,unless you have your own canoe, because it's theeasiestway toget caught. The flee ingRomeo is also an islander,his home only a few inletsaway fromhis Juliet,and he knows well the consequences of his act. 38 I World Literature Today I follow him. From afar!Wings of survival have sprouted on his back. The hunters getback up and resume theirbeat. Lacking intuitiontheyhead east, losing trackof theirprey. That's thedirection they turn to say theirprayers. Could itbe thatat theend of theirtrekall they'll find isGod counting His dead? Allah Akbar! The man arrives at thewharf out of breath. He stamps his feetnervously. An old fisherman about to liftanchor pulls on a rope that seems to have no end...

Inassouvies, nos vies by Fatou Diome

novel is one of interwoven secrets and searching: for identities, miss ing loved ones, self-esteem, and the solution to mysteries. Kathleen McNerney West Virgnia University Fatou Diome. Inassouvies, nos vies. Paris. Flammarion. 2008. 271 pages. 19. isbn978-2-0812-1353-1 The latest novel by the author of Le Venire de l'Atlantique (2003; see WLT, September 2004, 83) and Ketala (2006) is set in Strasbourg, where Fatou Diome has been living since she left Senegal in 1994. The narra tive is based on a plot device that has both literary and cinematic ante cedents: the narrator, Betty, is fasci nated by the lives she surreptitiously observes through the windows of the apartment building situated across the street from where she lives. In fact, this apparently solitary young woman refers to herself as "Betty la Loupe" (magnifyingglass), describ ing in detail the results of her daily periods of scrutiny to her readers. A mixture of voyeurism and soci ological observation, her curiosity leads her to focus on an old woman who lives by herself, who seems to lead an active, independent life, and whom Betty decides to name Felicite. The two women sometimes cross paths in the street, on the way to neighborhood shops, but Betty's attempts tomake contactwith the object ofher inquisitive gaze remain ineffectual. It is when Felicite is shipped off to a nursing home by insensitive relatives thatBettydecides to call on the now-embittered senior citizen. The initially awkward encounter between the younger African narra tor and the older French retiree soon becomes an unusual but real friend ship,which allows both women to reveal something about their back grounds and to share stories about Felicitas former neighbors. Predict ably, their cross-cultural connec tionwill eventually be cut shortby Felicitas death. Shocked by theway inwhich the old woman had been abandoned by her relatives, Betty recalls the loss of those who were important in her own life. Increas ingly depressed, she "disappears," leaving onlywords andmusic inher empty apartment. The narration is frequently punctuated by exclamations similar to the title ("our lives are unsatisfied, unappeased") with the narrator/ magnifying glass emphasizing that there is always some type of empti ness at theheart of every individual existence. This form of literary rep etition functions as amusical refrain, intensifiedby the references to the kora, a twenty-one-string instrument used byWest African griots.Diome's authorial voice is often heard com menting on the storylineor provid ing asides on various social or politi cal issues. Some of these tangents degenerate into ranting sessions that detract from the novel's exception ally high stylistic level and should have been removed at the editing stage. A central theme is the differ ence between African and European attitudes toward elders. Diome, who was raised by her grandmother, con trasts their traditionally respected place inAfrican communities with the European practice of isolating old people within specialized insti tutions. For Diome, this form of internal banishment not only pun ishes thosewho deserve dignitydur ing their finalyears, itdeprives the following generations of theknowl edge and stories accumulated by elders.Whether or not this lack of generational division is still char acteristic of increasingly urbanized African societies, Fatou Diome's keenly perceptive novel resonates with a strong, clear voice. EdwardOusselin WesternWashington University Jean Echenoz. Courir. Paris. Minuit. 2008. 142 pages. 13.50. isbn978-2 7073-2048-3 The long-distance runner, we are often told, is a lonely figure. Yet "Emile," the protagonist of Jean Echenoz's latest novel, does not seem to fitthat mold. Though by no means a backslapper, he nonetheless functions well enough among oth ers, becoming, eventually, not only a productive but also a revered mem ber ofhis society.By thesame token, Echenoz's book does not quite fitthe mold thatwe usually imagine for the novel. Like Ravel (2006),which immediately precedes it in Eche noz's oeuvre, it is slightly askew with regard to theconventions of the genre, leaning distinctly once again toward biography. For Echenoz's "Emile" turns out to be the Czech athlete Emil Z?topek (1922-2000), who famously came to dominate long-distance running during the mid-twentieth century. His preemi nence was such that he...

Courir by Jean Echenoz

novel is one of interwoven secrets and searching: for identities, miss ing loved ones, self-esteem, and the solution to mysteries. Kathleen McNerney West Virgnia University Fatou Diome. Inassouvies, nos vies. Paris. Flammarion. 2008. 271 pages. 19. isbn978-2-0812-1353-1 The latest novel by the author of Le Venire de l'Atlantique (2003; see WLT, September 2004, 83) and Ketala (2006) is set in Strasbourg, where Fatou Diome has been living since she left Senegal in 1994. The narra tive is based on a plot device that has both literary and cinematic ante cedents: the narrator, Betty, is fasci nated by the lives she surreptitiously observes through the windows of the apartment building situated across the street from where she lives. In fact, this apparently solitary young woman refers to herself as "Betty la Loupe" (magnifyingglass), describ ing in detail the results of her daily periods of scrutiny to her readers. A mixture of voyeurism and soci ological observation, her curiosity leads her to focus on an old woman who lives by herself, who seems to lead an active, independent life, and whom Betty decides to name Felicite. The two women sometimes cross paths in the street, on the way to neighborhood shops, but Betty's attempts tomake contactwith the object ofher inquisitive gaze remain ineffectual. It is when Felicite is shipped off to a nursing home by insensitive relatives thatBettydecides to call on the now-embittered senior citizen. The initially awkward encounter between the younger African narra tor and the older French retiree soon becomes an unusual but real friend ship,which allows both women to reveal something about their back grounds and to share stories about Felicitas former neighbors. Predict ably, their cross-cultural connec tionwill eventually be cut shortby Felicitas death. Shocked by theway inwhich the old woman had been abandoned by her relatives, Betty recalls the loss of those who were important in her own life. Increas ingly depressed, she "disappears," leaving onlywords andmusic inher empty apartment. The narration is frequently punctuated by exclamations similar to the title ("our lives are unsatisfied, unappeased") with the narrator/ magnifying glass emphasizing that there is always some type of empti ness at theheart of every individual existence. This form of literary rep etition functions as amusical refrain, intensifiedby the references to the kora, a twenty-one-string instrument used byWest African griots.Diome's authorial voice is often heard com menting on the storylineor provid ing asides on various social or politi cal issues. Some of these tangents degenerate into ranting sessions that detract from the novel's exception ally high stylistic level and should have been removed at the editing stage. A central theme is the differ ence between African and European attitudes toward elders. Diome, who was raised by her grandmother, con trasts their traditionally respected place inAfrican communities with the European practice of isolating old people within specialized insti tutions. For Diome, this form of internal banishment not only pun ishes thosewho deserve dignitydur ing their finalyears, itdeprives the following generations of theknowl edge and stories accumulated by elders.Whether or not this lack of generational division is still char acteristic of increasingly urbanized African societies, Fatou Diome's keenly perceptive novel resonates with a strong, clear voice. EdwardOusselin WesternWashington University Jean Echenoz. Courir. Paris. Minuit. 2008. 142 pages. 13.50. isbn978-2 7073-2048-3 The long-distance runner, we are often told, is a lonely figure. Yet "Emile," the protagonist of Jean Echenoz's latest novel, does not seem to fitthat mold. Though by no means a backslapper, he nonetheless functions well enough among oth ers, becoming, eventually, not only a productive but also a revered mem ber ofhis society.By thesame token, Echenoz's book does not quite fitthe mold thatwe usually imagine for the novel. Like Ravel (2006),which immediately precedes it in Eche noz's oeuvre, it is slightly askew with regard to theconventions of the genre, leaning distinctly once again toward biography. For Echenoz's "Emile" turns out to be the Czech athlete Emil Z?topek (1922-2000), who famously came to dominate long-distance running during the mid-twentieth century. His preemi nence was such that he...