Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
9-30-2021
Publication Title
Transnational Africana Women’s Fictions
Volume
1
Issue
13
Pages
1-27
Publisher Name
Taylor & Francis
Publisher Location
London, UK
Abstract
The chapter contends that Maryse Condé’s novel Desirada has been repeatedly read as an identity quest novel, since the narrative impulse is determined by the protagonist’s search for her father’s identity. It argues, however, that Condé goes one step further by entirely subverting the identity quest narrative and presenting us with an excess, the production of fiction, which becomes something entirely different: a quest for an aesthetic truth rather than a filially determined identity. As such, by presenting us with a pastiche of the identity quest model, Condé’s transnationalism moves from minor to major, as her critique aims to dismantle the solidification of postcolonial ideology within the fields of literary and cultural studies.
Identifier
9781003177272
Recommended Citation
Vāgālāu, Eliana. A part le bonheur, il n’y a rien d’essentiel: The Transnational Narrative Model in Maryse Condé’s Desirada. Transnational Africana Women’s Fictions, 1, 13: 1-27, 2021. Retrieved from Loyola eCommons, Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications and Other Works, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003177272-17
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Copyright Statement
© Taylor & Francis, 2021.
Comments
Author Posting © Taylor & Francis, 2021. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Transnational Africana Women’s Fictions on 30 September 2021, available online: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003177272/transnational-africana-women-fictions-cheryl-sterling?refId=24555a93-f3ce-4887-8d48-3119458686cd&context=ubx