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- Title
Figurations of Returning to the Community in Léonora Miano's African Novels.
- Authors
Goumegou, Susanne; Nana, Louis
- Abstract
This article examines figurations of returning to the community in two of Léonora Miano's novels. These novels offer an opportunity to broaden the notion of returning to community that, in philosophical debates, tends to be essentialist and abstract. In Les aubes écarlates and La saison de l'ombre, two clans find themselves confronted with the abduction of community members who become child soldiers or slaves. The physical or spiritual return of those abductees to their communities is at the core of the novels, and it is closely linked to questions of memory. Understanding the dynamics of return as a figuration—both in the literary sense and in Norbert Elias's process sociology sense—helps us look at the concrete interactions that make up a community. This article analyzes the physical, mnemonic, and spiritual dimensions of returning to community and looks at the significance of inventing new rituals and forms of community.
- Subjects
ELIAS, Norbert, 1897-1990; FIGURATIVE art; CHILD soldiers; SPIRITUALITY; CHILD abduction; FICTION; ABDUCTION
- Publication
Philosophia Africana, 2023, Vol 22, Issue 2, p166
- ISSN
1539-8250
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5325/philafri.22.2.0166