From Lexical Creativeness to Generic and Vocal Hybridity: A Stylistic Analysis of Maurice Bandama’s Le-fils-de-lafemme-mâle
Daouda CoulıbalyStylistics is a science born from the works of Charles Bally at the start of the 20th century. It centers on literary texts. To decipher them, stylistics focuses on methods and concepts from the language sciences. It is therefore effective in bringing to light the various subtleties of the African novel which continues to regenerate from the resources of African language and linguistic heritage. This regeneration results in an Africanization of the writing language. It follows that re-lexicalization is at the heart of verbal praxis. It is materialized by the embedding of oral ethno-texts in the novel. This creativity is a form of discursive subversion which is characterized by a polyphonic and transgeneric aesthetics. Le-fils-de-la-femme-mâle by Maurice Bandaman conforms to this standard. The typographical configuration shows that the enunciative foundations of the work rests on the structure of the traditional African tale. As a result, the novel resists the norms of traditional storytelling. Furthermore, the insertion of the African tale into the structure of the novel is not based on any stable rule. The discourse is based on an intertextual practice that upsets the architectonics of the classic novel. It breaks with the canon and imposes another reception modality which provides obvious enjoyment to the reader. This work highlights all of the enunciative, linguistic and discursive phenomena that contribute to the authenticity of this work.
De la créativité lexicale à l’hybridité générique et vocale: une analyse stylistique de Le-fils-de-lafemme-mâle de Maurice Bandaman
Daouda CoulıbalyLa stylistique est une science née des travaux de Charles Bally au début du XXème siècle. Elle a pour objet le texte littéraire. Pour le décrypter, la stylistique s’appuie sur des méthodes et des concepts issus des sciences du langage. Elle est donc efficace pour mettre au jour les différentes subtilités du roman africain qui ne cesse de se régénérer à partir des ressources de l’oralité et du patrimoine linguistique africain. Cette régénération se traduit par une africanisation de la langue d’écriture. La relexicalisation est au cœur de la praxis verbale. Elle se matérialise par l’enchâssement d’ethno-textes oraux dans le roman. Cette créativité est une forme de subversion discursive qui se caractérise par une esthétique polyphonique et transgénérique. Le-fils-de-la-femme-mâle de Maurice Bandaman est conforme à cette norme. La configuration typographique montre que les fondements énonciatifs de l’œuvre reposent sur la structure du conte traditionnel africain. De ce fait, le roman s’oppose à la narration traditionnelle. En outre, l’insertion du conte africain dans la structure du roman ne repose sur aucune règle stable. Le discours est fondé sur une pratique intertextuelle qui bouleverse l’architectonique du roman classique. Il rompt avec l’horizon d’attente et impose une autre modalité de réception qui procure de la jouissance au lecteur obvie. Ce travail met en évidence l’ensemble des phénomènes énonciatifs, linguistiques et discursifs qui participent à l’authenticité de cette œuvre.
Stylistics is a discipline that derives from the sciences of language. It aims to decrypt literary texts through a process that makes texts literary. To achieve its goal, this discipline makes use of concepts and methods borrowed from discursive linguistics, rhetoric, poetics, semiotics and many other areas of text science (Calas, 2015, p. 7). Stylistics is viewed as an eclectic field. Its field of inquiry relates to the literary fact as an enunciative act, a meaning-form which obeys a hermeneutic approach. It is therefore qualified to reveal the aesthetic character of all literary productions. However, this present stylistic study mainly focuses on poetics. It is a science of text which is contiguous to stylistics. Poetics aims to bring out the formal properties of literary creations. It is based on a set of approaches, among which, is intertextuality. In the stylistic analysis of literary texts, intertextuality is one of the most useful theories of poetics. This concept, which was coined by Julia Kristeva in the 1960s, is used in the studies of comparative literature, speech analysis, poetics and stylistics. It is defined as the relationship that one text has with another. As a discursive practice, intertextuality can be studied through various scales of verbal creation: through quotation, pastiche, parody, mise en abyme etc. These processes play an essential role in the African verbal creation. Indeed, since the brilliance of Ahmadou Kourouma’s Les Soleils des independences and Yambo Ouologem’s Le Devoir de violence, African romantic creation has continued to improve over the years. This constantly growing innovation, which translates into the textualization of the African sociolinguistic universe and other processes, contributes to an Africanization of the writing language. The recourse to the Ivorian origin contributes to the lexical connotation. Thus, the terms inserted by the authors in the writing language participate in the enrichment of the French language. One could say that relexification is at the heart of literary creation. It is materialized by the transposition of statements, by the insertion of oral ethno-texts in the novel. This language fabrication is a form of discursive subversion that results in an aesthetic of hybridity. The novel Le-fils-de-la-femme mâle is no exception to this standard. When we read it, it stands out that the author expresses his vision of the world through the incorporation of oral genres in the story. The typographical configuration shows that the enunciative foundations of the work rest on the structure of the traditional African tale. The marks of the tale are inserted in the discourse through processes such as italics and quotation marks. Despite the effort made by the romantic tale teller Maurice Bandaman to hide the tale’s tracks, of the song and myth in the novel structure, the reader is able to perceive these oral intertexts through their characters. Through this process, the classic narration is interrupted. Furthermore, the insertion of the traditional tale into the structure of the novel is not based on any stable rule. Discontinuity leads the reading and the decoding of the message imparted by the novelist to the receiver. Viewed as a discourse, the work is based on an intertextual practice which overturns the architectonics of the classic novel. It breaks with the canon and imposes another reception modality that provides enjoyment to the reader. The dominance of formulas in the strata of this novel provides a basis for generic hybridity. The main purpose of this reflection is to highlight all of the enunciative, linguistic and discursive phenomena that participate in the renovation of this romantic work. Moreover, the examination of the utterance scene attests that the narration is supported by several vocal sources. It offers a hold on an exploitation of polyphony which goes beyond narration and results in the marks of reported discourse and autonymic modalization. The latter highlights the position of the enunciator with regards to his statement. In Ivorian novelist work, autonymic modalization is marked by quotation marks and italics. These linguistic signs underline the words that the author invented to construct his story. The lexical creativity undoubtedly gives originality to Maurice Bandaman’s romantic discursiveness. This is certainly the reason why the mediation authorities awarded the author the “Grand prix littéraire de l’Afrique noire” when the book was published in 1993.
