Polyphonie et appropriation langagière dans deux romans africains: Kétala de Fatou Diome et La saison de l'ombre de Léonora Miano

Abstract

A reading of the two works that make up our corpus reveals phenomena of hybridization of orality with the narrative structures of the classical novel. These phenomena of discursive hybridisation include linguistic appropriation and the use of several voices in the works in the corpus. This gives rise to our topic: Polyphony and linguistic appropriation in two African novels: Kétala by Fatou Diome and La saison l'ombre by Léonora Miano. The central research question underpins our thinking: how can we identify the phenomena of polyphony and appropriation of language in francography, with its aesthetic implications? The initial hypothesis is that the phenomena of polyphony and language appropriation are identified by the modification of the norms of the French language, which can be seen in the language practices of the speakers of our novels. To support this, the work is broadly based on the stylistics of enunciation theorised by Émile Benveniste. This theoretical framework is complemented by the ethnostylistics of Gervais Mendo Ze. The work is based on the hypothetico-deductive method. The first part deals with the theoretical framework and the analytical perspectives of the study. The second part is concerned with studying the mechanisms of polyphony and linguistic appropriation in the context of novel writing. Given this, the main objective is to show that the phenomena of polyphony and linguistic appropriation participate in the linguistic creativity of the different enunciators with the aim of enriching the tropicalised use of the French language and promoting cultural identity. For the authors in the corpus, this distortion of the language by the speakers is presented as a form of transgressive writing, which takes liberties with the novelistic canons and the language code to produce hybrid texts.