Description:

Abstract: 

In La vie sans fards Maryse Condé returns to the African Continent in order to give us an insight into the immediate aftermath of independence in such countries as Côte d’Ivoire, Guinée, Ghana, and Sénégal. La vie sans fards not only provides us with an important aperçu into the realities of independence in the 1960s (in what were then newly established African Nation States) but her work also enters into dialogue with previous works such as Le cœur à rire et à pleurer and Victoire, les saveurs et les mots. Thus, this récit not only serves to give us a harrowing look into the deprivation and violence that pervaded in the immediate aftermath of independence, but as Maryse Condé says (in an oblique reference to Rousseau) La vie sans fards also serves to show “à mes semblables une femme dans toute la vérité de la nature et cette femme sera moi .”

By fearlessly showing us her personal struggle to survive across a series of newly minted African nation states, Maryse Condé illuminates an often glossed over moment of history—the immediate aftermath of independence. Additionally, in my presentation, I will show how the travels highlighted in La vie sans fards serve as a roman à clef to Heremakhonon, Maryse Condé first novel. Lastly, by reversing the current of the Diaspora and directing it towards the African continent in La vie sans fards, she shows us what it was like to actually undertake the journey only ever envisioned by Aimé Césaire in Cahier d’un retour au pays natal. Subsequently Condé helps us to understand why the main character of Heremakhonon, Veronica, uttered after her trip to the pays natal: “Je me suis trompée, trompée, d’aïeux, voilà tout. J’ai cherché mon salut là où il ne le fallait pas. Parmi les assassins” (243).

Bio: 



Felisa Vergara Reynolds received her PhD from Harvard University and is Assistant Professor of French at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Felisa’s research interests are in 20th and 21st century literature in French from the French Caribbean, West Africa and North Africa and the ever-expanding francophone literary world.

Last year, her article entitled “Khatibi as Derrida’s Foil: Undermining the last defender of the French language” appeared in Contemporary French & Francophone Studies, (SITES). Forthcoming in Modern Philology will be her co-authored article entitled “Zazie and Aristotle.” She has also recently completed an article entitled “Maryse Condé’s taste for history, tales in triptych”, which is currently under review.

Last but not least, she is currently completing her monograph which is tentatively titled “Cannibalizing Literature: Four francophone authors re-write the canon.”