French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Ouedraogo, The Imaginary in the Novelistic Aesthetics of Jean-Marie Adiaffi
Francophone and Oral Literatures

Amadou Ouedraogo, The Imaginary in the Novelistic Aesthetics of Jean-Marie Adiaffi

Foreword by Amadou Koné.

Paris: L'Harmattan, coll. "Critiques littéraires", 2015.

248 p.

EAN 9782343072227 (PDF Ebook format: 9782336394312)

25.00 EUR (digital version: 18.99 EUR)

Publisher's overview:

This study examines the multiple dimensions of the imaginary as manifested in Jean-Marie Adiaffi's 1980 work La carte d'identité. It explores the imaginary simultaneously as an aesthetic tool, a vehicle for dreamlike and philosophical impulses, a foundation for religious aspiration, and the voice through which a vision of the self and the world is articulated. The book demonstrates how Adiaffi's work places the imaginary at the core of human experience, and how symbolic expression leads the individual to transcend the noise of the sensory universe.

Amadou Ouedraogo holds a Doctorat de 3ème cycle in Anglophone African Studies from Stendhal University of Grenoble, France, and a Ph.D. in Francophone African and Caribbean Studies from the University of Iowa, USA. He has taught at Hendon and St. Mary’s (London, England), the University of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), the University of Iowa, and Williams College (Massachusetts, USA).

Published in 1980, Jean-Marie Adiaffi's landmark novel La carte d'identité stands as a crucial text in post-independence Francophone African literature. By focusing on the concept of the imaginary, Amadou Ouedraogo situates Adiaffi's work within a broader intellectual tradition that seeks to reclaim African cultural identity and spiritual heritage. The imaginary here is not merely a flight of fancy, but a vital aesthetic and philosophical framework. Through symbols, myths, and dreamlike narratives, Adiaffi constructs a unique literary space where the colonized subject can transcend colonial alienation and articulate a self-determined vision of the world.

This scholarly study is highly valuable for researchers, teachers, and students of Francophone literature, postcolonial studies, and African philosophy. Ouedraogo's analysis helps readers address fundamental questions about how modern African writers use traditional spirituality and mythic symbolism to resist cultural erasure. By examining the intersection of aesthetics, religion, and politics in Adiaffi's writing, the book offers deep insights into the narrative strategies of West African fiction. It serves as an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the complex relationship between literary form, personal identity, and collective memory in modern African prose.