Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2015

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

French

Major Professor

Awa Sarr

Committee Members

John Romeiser, Sebastien Dubreil

Abstract

This thesis analyzes Les Soleils des Independances (1968) by Ahamadou Kourouma and Trop de Soleil Tue l’Amour (1999) by Mongo Beti with the main objectives of examining how the postcolonial societies in Africa are touhced by many kind of problems addressed by authors in literature. In fact, the two books chosen for this exercise cover the question of the disappearance of traditional beliefs, the poor management of economical and political aspects of the societies, the dictatorship under the name of democracy, corruption as a norm, and many other points. In both Ahmadou Kourouma’s and Mongo Beti’s work, poor and vulnerable characters provide a way to be in the heart of the social life that tends to exclude those poor. While Kourouma tends to be more optimistic than Beti, both however talk about the societies’ need for change— changes in tradition as well as economic, societal, political and mental changes, because without such considerations, the question of the future is uncertain. With this variety of problems shown in the novels, and knowing the great number of African novelists around the world underlining these kinds of problems, we came to the observation that the people are suffering to help the rich to maintain their wealth. The poor cannot react because the situation does not allow any protest since the police are an ally to the dictator. This alliance maintains an undesirable status quo, and, since the characters in the novels, as the human beings in real life, tend to suffer from blindness and also from slowness, the writers try to awaken them by forcing them to action.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS