Thresholds: A ‘Complete’ Table of the Borrowings in Yambo Ouologuem’s Le Devoir de violence, and Why They Matter

Christopher L. Miller is the Frederick Clifford Ford Professor of French and African American Studies, emeritus, at Yale University. His previous books include Blank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in French (Chicago); The French Atlantic Triangle: Literature and Culture of the Slave Trade (Duke); and Impostors: Literary Hoaxes and Cultural Authenticity (Chicago).

• Part OneChronology: Yambo Ouologuem and Le Devoir de ViolencePart TwoIntroductionCan Words Be “Borrowed”?Francophone Literary Borrowing and “Textual Ownership”An Overview of the Borrowings in Le Devoir de violenceThe Schwarz-Bart Connection, and a ComparisonCase StudiesOuologuem’s Forgotten Farewell: “The World is False”ConclusionPart ThreeA Table of the Borrowings in Yambo Ouologuem’s Le Devoir de Violence

"Thresholds of Meaning explores a range of complex historical and social questions pertaining to cultural production, consecration, dissemination, reception, and retrieval. Together, these questions promise to nourish engaging conversations around contemporary debates, while also improving our capacity to evaluate how knowledge will continue to be recorded and transmitted in new and unforeseen ways along the connected pathways of twenty-first century existence." Dominic Thomas, Madeleine Letessier Professor of French, UCLA