This project investigates what I am calling postcolonial parody through an analysis of a corpus of French-language novels. The central argument maintains that postcolonial literary criticism routinely interprets parody in postcolonial texts as a strategy of subversion, and in this way oversimplifies the way that parody – and perhaps, by extension, literature as such – engages with the reader and the world. My aim is to propose an alternative to the current critical approach. The texts analysed are by three contemporary authors: Alain Mabanckou, Dany Laferrière and Calixthe Beyala. These writers have been well-received by a large European and North American audience and their highly accessible humour also shares a provocative edge, making it particularly appropriate for this study. A comparative analysis of some of the best-selling work by these now well-established authors has the potential to offer new interpretations of their writing. In spite of the complexities of intention and reception, comic writing of this sort is often co-opted by an orthodox form of postcolonial criticism which responds to the paradoxes and ambiguity of parodic language by presuming certain things about its motives and implications. I will identify the shortcomings of this critical ‘subversive reflex’, advocating an approach that looks more carefully at the effect of parodic techniques in postcolonial writing. Focusing in turn on irony, intertextuality, reflexivity, and mock-documentary this thesis highlights how these literary techniques in the works of ‘minority’ or ‘francophone’ authors are rarely discussed as postmodern comic devices but rather subsumed under the banner of postcolonial resistance. My analysis shows that whilst some authors may intend their comedy to have a subversive effect their humour does not necessarily always work in this way and it may not be consistently directed against the former coloniser. Parody crystallises key questions regarding postcolonial critics’ recourse to ideas of context and the biographical author-figure in their speculations on texts’ political impact. An exploration of postcolonial parody, then, sheds light on wider issues regarding the relationship between texts and their contexts, and the models of reading that currently predominate in certain branches of criticism.
The Pleasures of Postcolonial Parody: Beyond Comic Subversion
Robson, L. E. I. (Author). 2016
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy