Roman francophone et essai: Mudimbe, Chamoiseau, Khatibi by Olga Hel-Bongo (review)

What is the relationship between the essai and roman genres in French and Francophone literature? How do three writers from various Francophone backgrounds blur the lines of fiction and nonfiction in a manner dating back to Michel de Montaigne in the sixteenth century? These questions are examined in Olga Hel-Bongo's publication, combining her previous research on Montaigne with her interest in writers working in the French language outside of France. The author is convincing in the justifications of her research questions by explaining that literary institutions and scholars have long favored the generic form of the novel above other forms, while elucidating the important historical role the genre of the essay has played in French literature from Montaigne to Sartre to the present. This book analyzes the novels of V.Y. Mudimbe (DRC), Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique), and Abdelkébir Khatibi (Morocco) to illustrate the ways they employ elements of the essai in their fictive works, the inverse of Montaigne who relied on fictive techniques in his Essais (122). The author considers Jacques Dubois's method of interpreting the novels' méta -textualité to demonstrate that the role of the essay in a novel can become "le fruit d'une double attente: construire un savoir, travailler une écriture" (41). Hel-Bongo seems to effortlessly surmise the academic debates surrounding issues related to literary genres produced in the French language by introducing an analysis of theoreticians like Barthes, Foucault, and Derrida with Francophone scholars like Jacques Chevrier and Mukala Kadima-Nzuji to provide a critical framework to the text. It should be noted that the author only considers secondary critical sources published in French (or notable critics translated into French like Auerbach's Mimesis and Mikhail Bakhtin) and does not incorporate scholarship originally published in English. However, the author preemptively warns of any possible subjectivity concerning the book's primary corpus and its methodological approaches clarifying her intention to understand the social and epistemological environment of each writer in addition to investigating their singular, unique engagement with literary genres. Despite the initial challenges of dealing with such a large corpus of primary works from three prolific writers of diverse backgrounds, one of the strengths of Hel-Bongo's analysis is the reconsideration of these writers through a broader critical lens, revealing how literary genres are manipulated by both the writer and reader: "Il y a donc entrelacement générique dont nous ne saurions dire s'il s'agit, à proprement parler, d'autobiographie, de journal, de roman ou d'essai, sinon tout cela à la fois" (160). By widening the boundaries of generic interpretation, the author can more efficiently flush out the similar and singular literary techniques used by Mudimbe, Chamoiseau, and Khatibi. Not only is Roman francophone et essai a noteworthy contribution in the scholarship of three acclaimed writers, but it will also assist those interested in the generic forms of the essay and novel in the French literary tradition.