Women in Motion: Corpographies of Francophone Narratives Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

This dissertation reimagines postcolonial geographies by interrogating how space is represented in Francophone novels published by female authors over the course of the 20th century. It examines, in chronological order, Marguerite Duras’s Un Barrage contre le Pacifique (1950), Myriam Warner-Vieira’s Juletane (1982), Maryse Condé’s Hérémakhonon (1988), and Gisèle Pineau’s L’Espérance-macadam (1995). Topics of land, migration, sexuality, geography, and marginalization are recurring throughout the texts and articulated in relation the French colonial empire and the long-lasting consequences of its aftermath. The depiction of space in Francophone novels cannot, by definition, be an empty container or a blank backdrop, to all the historical events, traumatic episodes, and meteorological manifestations that unfold in literary works. Space in the Francophone literature of the 20th century acts as an active player in the narratives here studied. This is where my use of the concept of “corpography” provides a new methodology to study representations of space within novels as it is conceived, perceived, and lived by characters in retracing their movements. 

As a result, this dissertation tells a story of space in the Francophone world, from Indochina to the Caribbean, of how it became a site of negotiation, conversation, and even anti-colonial contestation. I show that women characters’ journeys in the space of the novel draw attention to visible patterns of resistance and negotiation in the wake of colonization. Whether Afro-descendant characters in exile or an impoverished landowner in the Pacific, these women redefine female agency by writing themselves against a landscape whose practices, discourse, and environment, tries to fix them into place. Because these narratives of women in migration, exile, transit, or stagnation, question conventional conceptions of space as defined by colonialism, they challenge narratives about borders and boundaries. Space appears in these novels as a matter of motion; women in motion. 

 

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter One

MARGUERITE DURAS AND THE GEOGRAPHIES OF STRUGGLE AND DESIRE 17

Chapter Two

DIASPORA’S IMPOSSIBLE RETURN TO AFRICA IN CONDÉ’S HÉRÉMAKHONON AND WARNER-VIEYRA’S JULETANE 55

Chapter Three

STORM, SEX, AND SPIRALS IN GISÈLE PINEAU’S L’ESPÉRANCE-MACADAM 80

Conclusion 109

Bibliography 115

Annex 123

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	French
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Literature, Caribbean Women's Studies Geography
Keyword	Digital Humanities
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Valérie Loichot, PhD., Emory University
Committee Members	Elissa Marder, PhD., Emory University Subha Xavier, PhD., Emory University

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