Between the real and the supernatural, between Africa and the West: Anna Swoboda on the trail of Ken Bugul

Abstract

The article discusses the main premises of Anna Swoboda’s monograph La Prose de Ken Bugul : entre le réel et le surnaturel. Swoboda assumes that the key to deciphering the characteristics of Ken Bugul’s prose is the interpenetration of the two dimensions present in the work of this contemporary Senegalese writer: the real and the supernatural. The book analyzes the fantastic, marvelous and uncanny elements that constitute the supernatural aspect of Bugul’s hybrid prose, as well as examines the fragmentation and multifaceted identity of the autofictional female protagonist (in the part devoted to the real elements). The eclectic methodology combines Western and African research on non-mimetic fiction with postcolonial and feminist theories.