Tchibamba, Stanley and Conrad : postcolonial intertextuality in Central African fiction

Titre Tchibamba, Stanley and Conrad : postcolonial intertextuality in Central African fiction
Type de publication Article de périodique
Langue principale de la publication anglais
Date de publication 2019
Auteur Yvonne REDDICK
Titre du périodique Tydskif vir Letterkunde
Volume ou tome 56
N° de la livraison 2
Ville Pretoria
Genre article scientifique
Pays d'édition Afrique du Sud
DOI https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.56i2.5639
URL https://journals.assaf.org.za/index.php/tvl/article/view/5639
Résumé/Présentation "Paul Lomami Tchibamba (1914?85) is often described as the Congo?s first novelist. Previous research in French and English has depicted Tchibamba?s work as a straightforward example of ?writing back? to the colonial canon. However, this article advances scholarship on Tchibamba?s work by demonstrating that his later writing responds not only to Henry Morton Stanley?s account of the imperial subjugation of the Congo, but to Joseph Conrad's questioning of colonialist narratives of ?progress'. Drawing on recent theoretical work that examines intertextuality in postcolonial fiction, this article demonstrates that while Tchibamba is highly critical of Stanley, he enters into dialogue with Conrad's exposure of colonial brutality. Bringing together comparative research insights from Congolese and European literatures, this article also employs literary translation. This is the first time that excerpts from two of Tchibamba?s most important responses to colonial authors have been translated into English. Also for the first time, Tchibamba?s novella Ngemena is shown to be a crucial postcolonial Congolese response to Heart of Darkness. Through close textual analysis of Tchibamba?s use of irony and imagery, this article?s key findings are that, while Tchibamba nuances Conrad's disparaging portrait of a chief, he develops the ironic mode of Conrad's An Outpost of Progress, and updates the journey upriver into the interior in Heart of Darkness. This article illustrates the complex and nuanced way in which Tchibamba interacts with his European intertexts, deploying close analyses of his responses to Conradian imagery."
Référence complète Reddick, Yvonne. Tchibamba, Stanley and Conrad : postcolonial intertextuality in Central African fiction. In : Tydskif vir Letterkunde, vol. 56, n°2, 2019. En ligne

Auteurs

Yvonne REDDICK

Biographie : "Yvonne Reddick is a research fellow at the Institute for Black Atlantic Research, Faculty of Culture and the Creative Industries, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom. Her monograph is Ted Hughes: Environmentalist and Ecopoet." (Tydskif vir Letterkunde - 2019)