‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance

Nathalie Etoke’s novels Un amour sans papiers (1999) and Je vois du soleil dans tes yeux (2008) deal with the hardships of the African postcolonial condition in the global era through the trope of doomed romance. In these novels, the plight of the postcolonial nation-state drives people to emigrate...

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Main Author: Anna-Leena Toivanen
Format: Article
Language:Afrikaans
Published: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association 2016-04-01
Series:Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/tvl/article/view/1182
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spelling doaj-149f793e69c34713a228ff2527f9ec232020-11-25T02:37:32ZafrTydskrif vir Letterkunde AssociationTydskrif vir Letterkunde0041-476X2309-90702016-04-0153110.4314/tvl.v53i1.13‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romanceAnna-Leena Toivanen0University of Eastern Finland Nathalie Etoke’s novels Un amour sans papiers (1999) and Je vois du soleil dans tes yeux (2008) deal with the hardships of the African postcolonial condition in the global era through the trope of doomed romance. In these novels, the plight of the postcolonial nation-state drives people to emigrate in a search for more viable prospects. While the mobility theme addressed in her novels is typical of third-generation African literatures in general, Etoke’s vision simultaneously struggles against the postnationalist currents informing this literary paradigm. Indeed, Etoke’s novels are quite loud and didactic in their articulations of political commitment towards the nation and the continent. Etoke holds on to the anticolonial romance narrative, but at the same time cannot ignore its inevitable failures in the present. This leads to a tension that marks her work by giving it a bipolar character, one that manifests itself in the constant oscillation between utopianism and disillusionment. The bipolar quality of the texts betrays a discomfort that the narratives’ promotion of an anticolonial struggle for nationhood and decolonisation generate in a postcolonial era that keeps witnessing the failures of these romantic discourses to realise themselves. A close reading of the novels reveals that this discomfort finds its articulation in the narrative fabric of the texts. https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/tvl/article/view/1182Anticolonial romance narrativebipolar narrativesNathalie Etokepostcolonial condition
collection DOAJ
language Afrikaans
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Anna-Leena Toivanen
spellingShingle Anna-Leena Toivanen
‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
Anticolonial romance narrative
bipolar narratives
Nathalie Etoke
postcolonial condition
author_facet Anna-Leena Toivanen
author_sort Anna-Leena Toivanen
title ‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
title_short ‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
title_full ‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
title_fullStr ‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
title_full_unstemmed ‘Les lendemains de révolution avortée’: Natalie Etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
title_sort ‘les lendemains de révolution avortée’: natalie etoke's bipolarr narratives of doomed national romance
publisher Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association
series Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
issn 0041-476X
2309-9070
publishDate 2016-04-01
description Nathalie Etoke’s novels Un amour sans papiers (1999) and Je vois du soleil dans tes yeux (2008) deal with the hardships of the African postcolonial condition in the global era through the trope of doomed romance. In these novels, the plight of the postcolonial nation-state drives people to emigrate in a search for more viable prospects. While the mobility theme addressed in her novels is typical of third-generation African literatures in general, Etoke’s vision simultaneously struggles against the postnationalist currents informing this literary paradigm. Indeed, Etoke’s novels are quite loud and didactic in their articulations of political commitment towards the nation and the continent. Etoke holds on to the anticolonial romance narrative, but at the same time cannot ignore its inevitable failures in the present. This leads to a tension that marks her work by giving it a bipolar character, one that manifests itself in the constant oscillation between utopianism and disillusionment. The bipolar quality of the texts betrays a discomfort that the narratives’ promotion of an anticolonial struggle for nationhood and decolonisation generate in a postcolonial era that keeps witnessing the failures of these romantic discourses to realise themselves. A close reading of the novels reveals that this discomfort finds its articulation in the narrative fabric of the texts.
topic Anticolonial romance narrative
bipolar narratives
Nathalie Etoke
postcolonial condition
url https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/tvl/article/view/1182
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