Quels je pour quels nous&#8239? Autogenèse et éthique de la création littéraire

Abstract

This article offers an comprehensive reading of André Schwarz-Bart’s text entitled “Pourquoi j’ai écrit La Mulâtresse Solitude” (first published in Le Figaro littéraire in 1967, reprinted by Le Seuil in 1968 in a non-commercial edition). In this text, the writer explains the circumstances which led him to write Un plat de porc aux bananes vertes, a novel co-written with Simone Schwarz-Bart, which constitutes the first volume in a cycle entitled La Mulâtresse Solitude. This article seeks to shed light on the status and issues of this autogenetic discourse, in which the author describes both his subjective metamorphosis and his reflections on the ethics of literary creation. At the heart of the matter lie the writer’s legitimacy to speak of a culture other than his own – i.e., issues of cultural appropriation (avant la lettre) – and the collaboration within the literary couple. Literary creation, thus, is sometimes conceived as the product of work, sometimes as the result of a generative process.

Keywords

• André et Simone Schwarz-Bart
• process of creation
• autogenetic discourse
• cultural appropriation
• collaboration
• co-authorship