B. Bavuidi, Subjectivities and Writings of the Francophone Diaspora: Maryse Condé, Alain Mabanckou, and Melchior Mbonimpa - Francophone and Oral Literatures

French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Bavuidi, Subjectivities and Writings of the Francophone Diaspora: Maryse Condé, Alain Mabanckou, and Melchior Mbonimpa
Francophone and Oral Literatures

Bodia Bavuidi, Subjectivités et écritures de la diaspora francophone - Maryse Condé, Alain Mabanckou et Melchior Mbonimpa

Paris: L'Harmattan, 2015.

194 p.

EAN 9782343074894 (eBook PDF: 9782336392448)

20.50 EUR (digital version: 14.99 EUR)

Publisher's Overview:

The author examines four texts by authors of the Black diaspora, namely, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem... and Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé, Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou, and Le totem des Baranda by Melchior Mbonimpa. She seeks to demonstrate how each of these four novels reflects the evolution of Black subjectivity.

Bodia Bavuidi holds a PhD in philosophy and is a university professor in Canada and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, her native country.

The study of Francophone diaspora literature has long been concerned with the representation of identity, displacement, and historical memory. By focusing on the concept of subjectivity, scholars examine how individuals in postcolonial contexts define their own experiences and agency. This critical approach moves beyond broad collective narratives to explore the nuanced, internal lives of characters. In this context, the literary output of the Black diaspora, spanning the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, serves as a terrain for understanding how modern identities are constructed, contested, and transformed through narrative form.

In this volume, Bodia Bavuidi examines four novels: Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem and Crossing the Mangrove, Alain Mabanckou's Broken Glass, and Melchior Mbonimpa's Le totem des Baranda. Through these narratives, the study seeks to demonstrate how each of these novels reflects the evolution of Black subjectivity. Readers interested in postcolonial fiction, Francophone studies, and the literary representation of identity may find this examination of diasporic writing relevant to their research.