Abstract

This study examines the way three authors, Ousmane Sembene, Calixthe Beyala and Yvonne Vera portray the quest for the self in Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu, Your Name Shall be Tanga and Without a Name respectively. The study argues that despite regional and gender differences the three authors portray an identical notion of the self through their female characters. This notion as portrayed in the selected novels has the following aspects: the quest for the self is a choice, it is symbolised by a physical journey, it takes considerable time to form and it is a precarious balance between respecting people’s needs while not being society’s slave. Thus one cannot conceive of the self in a vacuum, but then neither must one bow down to everything that is dictated by society. The above concerns are linked to certain aspects of psycho analytical and existential theory. On the psycho analytical front, Jacques Lacan’s concept of mirroring, of the Self’ s relationship to the Other are invaluable tools in this analysis. Equally important is Carl Gustav Jung’s work on archetypes, which have been analysed in the study from two perspectives: that of the journey as an established motif and that of how the characters are portrayed according to existing archetypes about travelers, such as the wanderer, the traveler on a quest, and the returning hero. On the existentialist front, choice, freedom and responsibility play an important role in discovering how the characters decide to go on the quest for the self and what it means to them. The questions that the study seeks to answer through the analysis of the novels include how one can negotiate the balance between being an individual and yet take into account one’s responsibility to society, whether one can reach a point where one has successfully concluded the journey to the self, the role played by physical and mental space, why the journey is such an important vehicle for the expression of the self and how the three authors have used different stylistic devices to come up with the same thematic result.

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School	: School of Arts, Communication and Design
Issued Date	: 2005

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