From Parole Poïétique to the Ethical Turn: Moving with Léopold Sédar Senghor

This article addresses how Senghor’s “Élégie pour la Reine de Saba” artfully shapes textual territory that sets the stage for ethical practice. Contrary to the emphasis on synthesis that is often attributed to Senghorian politics, philosophy, and poetics, the “Élégie pour la Reine de Saba” shows that “moving-with” difference is key to Senghor’s parole poïétique, which is illustrated via the poem’s fertility dance. The text, which will also be referred to as “territory,” thus becomes the artistic milieu of the interplay of differences. These encounters and movements are the crucial dynamics that render Senghor’s new world vision active and ignite possibilities of doing differently in the world. Thus, through movement and particularly the fertility dance, ethics emerge.