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Historiographic Metafiction and the Interrogation of Collective Memory in J. M. Coetzee's Foe and Kamel Daoud's: Meursault, contre-enquĂȘte.
- Source :
- Research in African Literatures; Summer2021, Vol. 52 Issue 2, p54-67, 14p
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- This paper explores the problem of collective memory as a form of memorization that hinders the process of remembering in John Maxwell Coetzee's Foe (1986) and Kamel Daoud's Meursault, contre-enquête (2013). Drawing on existing research in the field of memory studies and narratology, I argue that the two novels, as historiographic metafiction, adopt a narrative strategy that embeds the previously established discourses of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and L'Étranger (1942) as false stories, then engage in an aggressive subversion. Foe as well as Meursault, contre-enquête access/borrow the canon, yet go beyond the colonial dilemma, highlighting the possibility of indulging in a counter-discursive strategy. While engaging European historical and fictional records, this strategy expands beyond the binary opposition of colonizer/colonized to turn the focus toward the national, the regional, or the local. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- FICTION
HISTORIOGRAPHY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00345210
- Volume :
- 52
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Research in African Literatures
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 155697159
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.52.2.03