Questions identitaires dans les récits afropéens de Léonora Miano by Marjolaine Unter Ecker (review)

In this in-depth study of Tels des astres éteints (2008), Afropean soul et d'autres nouvelles (2008), Blues pour Élise (2010), Ces âmes chagrines (2011), and Écrits pour la parole (2012), Marjolaine Unter Ecker argues that in Léonora Miano's work, identity is constructed according to three main axes: 'identité physique', 'identité intime', and 'identité historique'. After briefly outlining various discourses in which Miano can be situated ('francophonie', 'postcoloniale', and 'migrance'), Ecker moves on to an explanation of the centrality of identity in each of these fields and in Miano's corpus, given her elaboration of 'une identité frontalière' (p. 167). Defining Miano as a postcolonial author, Ecker applies Paul Ricœur's framework for theorizing identity to examine how it functions in three parts, each divided into three chapters. The chapters in Part One focus on the material spaces that impact identity formation, such as the Parisian city and its architecture as well the physical space of the body and how it is influenced by sex and sexuality or music videos. Whether the characters reflect on the urban space in which they live or how they move from one space to another as in from the banlieue to the centre of the city, their relationship to spatial parameters informs their conceptualizations of self and identity. In a section on 'Féminités et érotisme' the author discusses the proliferation of female characters and argues that 'les figures narratives cherchent sous la plume de leur auteure à définir leur identité dans la frontière des sexes' (p. 54), before going on to consider detailed physical descriptions of Miano's characters including a special attention to physique, hair, and clothing. In Part Two, on 'L'Identité intime', Ecker begins by emphasizing the diversity within Miano's texts. 'Dire que Miano écrit sur les Afropéens et non pas sur l'Afropéen marque la multiplicité des personnages de Miano' (p. 77). Particularly noteworthy in this section is an examination of narrative choices that draw inspiration from television sitcoms and soap operas. In the final part, on historic identity, the author argues that collective memory, genealogies, and history operate most critically in relationship to the African continent, which serves as a reference point for each of Miano's works. The study would have benefited from a more robust engagement with Miano's essays from Habiter la frontière: conférences (Paris: L'Arche, 2012) as well as a more extensive analysis of Écrits pour la parole. Although Ecker states early on that '[c]ette postmodernité de l'écriture chez Léonora Miano prend la forme d'une pluralité des genres et d'un refus à l'assignation dans des catégories littéraires figées' (p. 17), the discussion of genre could also have been further enriched.