This study proposes an intermediate reading of the Simian interdiscourse in Boubacar Boris Diop, who questioned its assumptions in Murambi, le livre des ossements and deconstructed them in his later texts, which followed his writing experience after the Rwanda genocide. The rhetoric of interethnic fratricide war, on the one hand, and the scientific discourses promoted in the 19th century on the inferiority of the black race and its proximity to the monkey, on the other hand, evoke the same racial substrate. The fascination with the hierarchy of races and species is immediately transformed into satire by Pierre Boulle in La Planète des singes. He attacks human vanity and the absurdity of the belligerent vocation of human beings. The resulting film adaptation gives rise to the first Hollywood franchise (Planet of the Apes). The saga regularly resemantizes the ideological and political criticism of imperialist thinking. It also revives the parodic power of art by inverting the patterns which, in Les Petits de la guenon by Boubacar Boris Diop, gives rise to the powerful allegory of the monkey facing the mirror, which symbolizes the drama of aping, namely the distorting image of oneself through the eye of the other.

Tarquini, V. (2021). Interdiscours du mythe simiesque : Boubacar Boris Diop et La Planète des singes. In L.S. FRANCESCO FIORENTINO (a cura di), Allegretto Vivace. Omaggio a Bruna Donatelli (pp. 273-288). Roma : RomaTre-Press [10.13134/979-12-5977-013-4].

Interdiscours du mythe simiesque : Boubacar Boris Diop et La Planète des singes

Tarquini Valentina
2021-01-01

Abstract

This study proposes an intermediate reading of the Simian interdiscourse in Boubacar Boris Diop, who questioned its assumptions in Murambi, le livre des ossements and deconstructed them in his later texts, which followed his writing experience after the Rwanda genocide. The rhetoric of interethnic fratricide war, on the one hand, and the scientific discourses promoted in the 19th century on the inferiority of the black race and its proximity to the monkey, on the other hand, evoke the same racial substrate. The fascination with the hierarchy of races and species is immediately transformed into satire by Pierre Boulle in La Planète des singes. He attacks human vanity and the absurdity of the belligerent vocation of human beings. The resulting film adaptation gives rise to the first Hollywood franchise (Planet of the Apes). The saga regularly resemantizes the ideological and political criticism of imperialist thinking. It also revives the parodic power of art by inverting the patterns which, in Les Petits de la guenon by Boubacar Boris Diop, gives rise to the powerful allegory of the monkey facing the mirror, which symbolizes the drama of aping, namely the distorting image of oneself through the eye of the other.
2021
979-12-5977-013-4
Cette étude propose une lecture intermédiale de l’interdiscours simiesque chez Boubacar Boris Diop tel que problématisé dans Murambi, le livre des ossements et déconstruit dans les textes qui ont suivi son expérience d’écriture postgénocidaire au Rwanda. La rhétorique de la guerre fratricide interethnique, d’une part, et les discours scientifiques promus au XIX siècle sur l’infériorité de la race noire et sur sa proximité avec le singe, d’autre part, évoquent un même soubassement racial. La fascination pour la hiérarchie des races et des espèces est aussitôt transformée en satire par Pierre Boulle qui dans La Planète des singes s’en prend à la vanité humaine et à l’absurde de la vocation belligérante de l’homme. L’adaptation cinématographique qui en a découlé est à l’origine de la première franchise hollywoodienne (Planet of the Apes). La saga resémantise régulièrement la critique idéologique et politique adressée à l’esprit impérialiste. Elle relance aussi le pouvoir parodique de l’art par l’inversion des schémas qui, dans Les Petits de la guenon (2009) de Boubacar Boris Diop, donne lieu à la puissante allégorie du singe face au miroir symbolisant le drame de la singerie, soit l’image déformée et déformante de soi-même par le regard de l’autre.
Tarquini, V. (2021). Interdiscours du mythe simiesque : Boubacar Boris Diop et La Planète des singes. In L.S. FRANCESCO FIORENTINO (a cura di), Allegretto Vivace. Omaggio a Bruna Donatelli (pp. 273-288). Roma : RomaTre-Press [10.13134/979-12-5977-013-4].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11590/418313
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