Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Date
2009-08-01
Keywords
Francophone authors | sociocultural themes | African culture | West Indian culture | literary analysis | exoticism | exotic women
Language
fre
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/70850
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
The representation of literary characters in a novel often addresses socio‐ cultural issues. The authors give depth to their literary characters by closely illuminating details of the novel’s setting, of the flora and the fauna, the social structure, the economic organization, aspects of the traditional culture, history and language. This study reviews several novels written by Francophone authors and examines the ways these novels treat socio‐cultural themes. The focus of this work is on exoticism , which can be defined as all “which is foreign to the climate, to the habits and to the culture of the world region in which one lives” iii (translated from Dictionnaire des Oeuvres et des thèmes de la littérature française). Works that are examined in this study contain an African or West Indian cultural component : “Les fleurs du mal” ‐ “The Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire, “Je suis Martiniquaise” ‐ “I am a Martinican Woman” by Mayotte Capécia, “D’une rive à l’autre” by Marie‐Magdeleine Carbet, “Moi, Tituba sorcière... ” ‐ “I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem” by Maryse Condé, “Histoire sans importance” by Roberte Horth, and “Pluie et vent sur Telumée Miracle” ‐ “The Bridge of Beyond”by Simone Schwartz‐Bart. In these novels, the French language provides the means of communicating the African or West Indian cultural component – which is foreign to a reader from France and could therefore be considered “exotic.” This study is a literary anlalysis: it examines the literary representation of an “exotic” woman and sets out to find answers to the following questions: How is exoticism communicated in the text? How is the narrative itself exotic? What linguistic and stylistic elements indicate to the reader the possible “exotic” elements contained in the text? What are the attributes of an “exotic” woman? What are the social, cultural and symbolic implications of the representation of an exotic woman?
Recommended Citation
Daly, Katerina, "La femme «exotique» dans des textes choisis
français et francophones du XIX. e et XX. e siècles" (2009). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 60.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/60