Narratives of catastrophe : Boris Diop, ben Jelloun, Khatibi / Nasrin Qader.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Qader, Nasrin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Diop, Boubacar Boris, 1946---Criticism and interpretation.

Diop, Boubacar Boris.

Ben Jelloun, Tahar, 1947---Criticism and interpretation.

Ben Jelloun, Tahar.

Khatibi, Abdelkebir, 1938-2009--Criticism and interpretation.

Khatibi, Abdelkebir.

African fiction (French)--History and criticism.

African fiction (French).

Disasters in literature.

Storytelling in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Narratives of Catastrophe tells the story of the relationship between catastrophe, in the senses of "down turn" and "break," and narration as "recounting" in the senses suggested by the French term récit in selected texts by three leading writers from Africa. Qader's book begins by exploring the political implications of narrating catastrophic historical events. Through careful readings of singular literary texts on the genocide in Rwanda and on Tazmamart, a secret prison in Morocco under the reign of Hassan II, Qader shows how historical catastrophes enter language and how this language is marked by the catastrophe it recounts. Not satisfied with the extra-literary characterizations of catastrophe in terms of numbers, laws, and naming, she investigates the catastrophic in catastrophe, arguing that catastrophe is always an effect of language andthought,. The récit becomes a privileged site because the difficulties of thinking and speaking about catastrophe unfold through the very movements of storytelling.This book intervenes in important ways in the current scholarship in the field of African literatures. It shows the contributions of African literatures in elucidating theoretical problems for literary studies in general, such as storytelling's relationship to temporality, subjectivity, and thought. Moreover, it addresses the issue of storytelling, which is of central concern in the context of African literatures but still remains limited mostly to the distinction between the oral and the written. The notion of récit breaks with this duality by foregrounding the inaugural temporality of telling and of writing as repetition.The final chapters examine catastrophic turns within the philosophical traditions of the West and in Islamic thought, highlighting their interconnections and differences.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Becoming-Survivor

2. Suffering Time

3. Shadowing the Storyteller

4. Un-limiting Thought

5. Figuring the Wine-Bearer

Conclusion. Engendering Catastrophes

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-230) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612699023

9780823247189

082324718X

9781282699021

1282699024

9780823237999

0823237990

9780823230501

0823230503

OCLC:

647876436