Document Type
Presentation
Location
Magnolia Room, LSU Student Union / Zoom
Start Date
6-3-2026 2:00 PM
End Date
6-3-2026 2:20 PM
Abstract
Tierno Monénembo’s Saharienne Indigo tells the life story of Véronique, a woman from Guinea with a past of violence and loss, told through her interactions with the annoying and persistent Frenchwoman madame Corre. Despite these two women’s opposing affiliations with a colonized country and the one that colonized them, the two develop a close friendship throughout the book. Theirs is a relationship that defies the claims laid out in Aimé Césaire's Discours sur le colonialisme that between the colonizer and the colonized, there is only space for negative sentiments and violent actions- never sympathy. The bond between Véronique and madame Corre that blosoms throughout the book challenges these notions and questions whether the two sides of the postcolonial spectrum could indeed come to foster a genuine connection with one another. How is it that these two women can manage to have such a profound and important friendship, given the inextricable context of their countries’ histories together? In this paper, I will analyze the development of the friendship between madame Corre and Véronique in Saharienne Indigo, using their interactions as evidence of the possibility of bridging the postcolonial gap. I seek to provide a nuanced perspective to Césaire’s strict refusal of colonial relationships by demonstrating these two characters’ transcendence of their historically prescribed roles and their connection to one another.
Included in
Transcending Postcolonial Boundaries in Tierno Monénembo’s Saharienne Indigo
Magnolia Room, LSU Student Union / Zoom
Tierno Monénembo’s Saharienne Indigo tells the life story of Véronique, a woman from Guinea with a past of violence and loss, told through her interactions with the annoying and persistent Frenchwoman madame Corre. Despite these two women’s opposing affiliations with a colonized country and the one that colonized them, the two develop a close friendship throughout the book. Theirs is a relationship that defies the claims laid out in Aimé Césaire's Discours sur le colonialisme that between the colonizer and the colonized, there is only space for negative sentiments and violent actions- never sympathy. The bond between Véronique and madame Corre that blosoms throughout the book challenges these notions and questions whether the two sides of the postcolonial spectrum could indeed come to foster a genuine connection with one another. How is it that these two women can manage to have such a profound and important friendship, given the inextricable context of their countries’ histories together? In this paper, I will analyze the development of the friendship between madame Corre and Véronique in Saharienne Indigo, using their interactions as evidence of the possibility of bridging the postcolonial gap. I seek to provide a nuanced perspective to Césaire’s strict refusal of colonial relationships by demonstrating these two characters’ transcendence of their historically prescribed roles and their connection to one another.
Comments
n/a