La manifestation (non)collective des sentiments dans l’Afrique romanesque

Abstract

In the Sub-Saharan francophone literature, promotion of the African traditional cultures is followed by its tragical disappearance which represents the main dynamic of the narrative. This fact is stressed by total absence of happiness of the main character who is always African. The main character during the plotline feels the paroxysm of positive emotions, caused usually by his future voyage to France, which is almost immediately substituted by the downfall into negativism. He accepted this sudden reversal with the external calm but in his interior he started to understand that this change affects his identity. At the end of the story, the main character pronounces an accusatory discourse against Europe. In this work we will study collective emotions in African milieu and the way the voyage to Europe influences the attitude of the main character to these shared feelings.

Keywords

• Francophone African literature
• fictional Africa
• novel
• emotions
• anticolonial movement