Abstract

Because the myth of Cadmus makes striking use of the image of teeth and involves the issue of foreign cultural penetration, it offers a productive vantage point from which to view So Long a Letter, for the latter too pays distinctive attention to teeth and of course to the issue of colonialism. This article takes the myth as a point of departure in order to highlight the narrator Ramatoulaye’s unacknowledged inconsistencies and conflicts both in the cultural and emotional domains. This allows for an increased appreciation of the text’s subtleties in characterization, narration, and genre classification, and it adds to questions about Ramatoulaye’s narrative reliability and about too facile an interpretation of this novel’s progressive inspiration.

pdf

Share