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Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles
My motivation to study Dany Laferrière's novels is inspired by the fact that the majority of studies or analyses made on works from francophone former colonies, are focused on cultural aspects and deal with questions of nationality or social problems. Furthermore, these works, favouring a thematic...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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French Language and Literature
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613264759750656 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Kayumba, Viviane Banza |
| author2 | Wynchank, Anny |
| author_browse | Kayumba, Viviane Banza Wynchank, Anny |
| author_facet | Wynchank, Anny Kayumba, Viviane Banza |
| author_sort | Kayumba, Viviane Banza |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | My motivation to study Dany Laferrière's novels is inspired by the fact that the majority of studies or analyses made on works from francophone former colonies, are focused on cultural aspects and deal with questions of nationality or social problems. Furthermore, these works, favouring a thematic approach, are considered as testimonial works and are relegated to a lower level than works from the metropole. Formal and stylistic understanding of this literature needs further research. From this viewpoint, Haitian francophone literature still has areas that require deeper investigation. This provides justification for the present research, focused on works by Dany Laferrière, the Haitian francophone author. Two of his works: le goût des jeunes filles (Young girls' cravings), and le cri des oiseaux fous (The screech of crazy birds) are analysed. A big part of these novels is autobiographical. This raises the following questions which we will try to elucidate. Is the author the narrator in those novels? Also, is he the main character, Vieux Os? In le goût des jeunes filles, the narrator is now in his new homeland, in Miami. Through is aunt's character, he drew the picture or the reality of the country of exile. He is also presenting three days he passed with a group of young girls, when he was in Haiti. He remembers how he was initiated to make love for the first time in his life. From there, he depicts the revolt of a young girl, against the oppressing middle class into which she is born. She leaves the perverted circle of her class and joins a group of young liberated girls. Dany Laferrière presents a novel of social observation, which castigates chaotic times created by a sordid dictatorship that results in teenagers' immorality and debauchery. The second novel, le cri des oiseaux fous, set in the time of Bébé Doc Duvalier and the militia, the tontons macoutes, deals with the anguish of the Haitian people, who are afflicted, impoverished and tortured by the dictators. Dany Laferrière depicts violence and abuse of power. The torture inflicted on opponents to the regime deprives mothers of their sons and their husbands, who, in order to protect their lives, are obliged to go into exile. Dany Laferrière stirred my interest because he presents a work of the moment. His novels portray adolescence, dictatorial tyranny and the integration of the exile into a new homeland. Laferrière brings up a worthwhile debate: how to become western when one comes from Haiti (Africa, Asia)? In his quest for identity, the author raises the issues of the contemporary struggle of hybrid identity. The two novels relate the personal trajectory of the author, to illustrate what he has become: a writer. My concern was, firstly, to understand, and to explain through the narrator's socio-historical trajectory, his interest to become a writer. I show that in these works the author projected himself as the narrator. For this phase, I relied on Bourdieu's method "la sociocritique" which allowed me to discover the origin of the author's obsession with the question of identity. He refused to be dictated by politics and wanted to work in the field he chose: literature. This refusal to be constrained is a sign of the search for identity. Secondly, my study has investigated the narrative techniques used by Laferrière, through the analysis of narration. Using one of Philippe Lejeune's works, I examined the relationship between the narrator, the author and the hero. Genette's narratology approach led my way in this study. It is impossible to deal with Laferrière's works as simple examples of francophone literature. At the end of my analyses, I found important literary merit in the organisation of related events. I have shown that Dany Laferrière is a talented writer and his works are an inexhaustible source from which one can draw. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14141 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:23.204Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | French Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | French Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14141 Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles Kayumba, Viviane Banza Wynchank, Anny French Language and Literature My motivation to study Dany Laferrière's novels is inspired by the fact that the majority of studies or analyses made on works from francophone former colonies, are focused on cultural aspects and deal with questions of nationality or social problems. Furthermore, these works, favouring a thematic approach, are considered as testimonial works and are relegated to a lower level than works from the metropole. Formal and stylistic understanding of this literature needs further research. From this viewpoint, Haitian francophone literature still has areas that require deeper investigation. This provides justification for the present research, focused on works by Dany Laferrière, the Haitian francophone author. Two of his works: le goût des jeunes filles (Young girls' cravings), and le cri des oiseaux fous (The screech of crazy birds) are analysed. A big part of these novels is autobiographical. This raises the following questions which we will try to elucidate. Is the author the narrator in those novels? Also, is he the main character, Vieux Os? In le goût des jeunes filles, the narrator is now in his new homeland, in Miami. Through is aunt's character, he drew the picture or the reality of the country of exile. He is also presenting three days he passed with a group of young girls, when he was in Haiti. He remembers how he was initiated to make love for the first time in his life. From there, he depicts the revolt of a young girl, against the oppressing middle class into which she is born. She leaves the perverted circle of her class and joins a group of young liberated girls. Dany Laferrière presents a novel of social observation, which castigates chaotic times created by a sordid dictatorship that results in teenagers' immorality and debauchery. The second novel, le cri des oiseaux fous, set in the time of Bébé Doc Duvalier and the militia, the tontons macoutes, deals with the anguish of the Haitian people, who are afflicted, impoverished and tortured by the dictators. Dany Laferrière depicts violence and abuse of power. The torture inflicted on opponents to the regime deprives mothers of their sons and their husbands, who, in order to protect their lives, are obliged to go into exile. Dany Laferrière stirred my interest because he presents a work of the moment. His novels portray adolescence, dictatorial tyranny and the integration of the exile into a new homeland. Laferrière brings up a worthwhile debate: how to become western when one comes from Haiti (Africa, Asia)? In his quest for identity, the author raises the issues of the contemporary struggle of hybrid identity. The two novels relate the personal trajectory of the author, to illustrate what he has become: a writer. My concern was, firstly, to understand, and to explain through the narrator's socio-historical trajectory, his interest to become a writer. I show that in these works the author projected himself as the narrator. For this phase, I relied on Bourdieu's method "la sociocritique" which allowed me to discover the origin of the author's obsession with the question of identity. He refused to be dictated by politics and wanted to work in the field he chose: literature. This refusal to be constrained is a sign of the search for identity. Secondly, my study has investigated the narrative techniques used by Laferrière, through the analysis of narration. Using one of Philippe Lejeune's works, I examined the relationship between the narrator, the author and the hero. Genette's narratology approach led my way in this study. It is impossible to deal with Laferrière's works as simple examples of francophone literature. At the end of my analyses, I found important literary merit in the organisation of related events. I have shown that Dany Laferrière is a talented writer and his works are an inexhaustible source from which one can draw. 2015-10-06T14:14:12Z 2015-10-06T14:14:12Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14141 eng application/pdf French Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | French Language and Literature Kayumba, Viviane Banza Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles |
| title_full | Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles |
| title_fullStr | Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles |
| title_short | Sujet : l’analyse du thème "Quête identitaire" et de la forme dans les deux romans de Dany Laferrière : Le cri des oiseaux fous et Le goût des jeunes filles |
| title_sort | sujet la€™analyse du tha¨me quaªte identitaire et de la forme dans les deux romans de dany laferria¨re le cri des oiseaux fous et le goa t des jeunes filles |
| topic | French Language and Literature |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14141 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kayumbavivianebanza sujetlaanalyseduthamequaateidentitaireetdelaformedanslesdeuxromansdedanylaferriarelecridesoiseauxfousetlegoatdesjeunesfilles |