Passionate Engagements
A Reading of Sony Labou Tansi's Private Ancestral Shrine
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9250697 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Phyllis Clark (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 39-68 |
| Publication date | 2000-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in African Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/ral.2000.31.3.39 |
| OpenAlex | W2054372843 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 1 |
To an uninitiated reader, Sony Labou Tansi's novels may seem full of humor and wit. He has a wonderfully irreverent way with words but his irony does have an edge to it. The names in the series of dictators beginning with C in La vie et demie (1978), for example, are hilarious: Jean Coriace, Jean Casse-Pipe, Jean Cash, Jean Cacahuète, Jean Cache-Sexe, Jean Crocodile, Jean Catafalque, Jean Carburateur and so on (148-49). The consequences of dictatorial leadership, on the other hand, appear less amusing even to a foreign readership. Sony's novels express a deep moral indignation in their denunciation of the shameful state into which humanity has sunk today. An attentive reading uncovers this dimension of the author's rage and bitter disappointment underneath the burlesque satire offered at the surface of the text. In the West, Sony Labou Tansi has enjoyed the status of an exemplary figure of political engagement in African francophone literature; his editors at Seuil advertised L'état honteux (1981) with the following statement on the back cover "L'auteur de La Vie et demie dénonce de nouveau l'arbitraire et la bétise qui régentent certains Etats africains" 'The author denounces once again the arbitrariness and stupidity that governs certain African states.' 1 An interest in exploring this impression of Sony Labou Tansi as dissident and writer motivated my research trip to Congo-Brazzaville in August 1996
Art · Art history · Humanities · Indignation · Irony · Literature · Metanarrative · Narrative · Political science · Politics · African history and culture studies · African Studies and Ethnography · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · History · Law · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2001 - 2023 (23) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |