Skip Navigation


Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access originally published online on February 17, 2009
Forum for Modern Language Studies 2009 45(2):176-187; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqp001
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
45/2/176    most recent
cqp001v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Fulton, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532.

This article appears in the following Forum for Modern Language Studies issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: Global Francophone Africa [View the issue table of contents]

Global City, Megacity: Calixthe Beyala and the Limits of the Urban Imaginary

Dawn Fulton

French Studies
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
USA

dfulton{at}email.smith.edu

  Abstract

Calixthe Beyala is well known for her ambivalent relationship with both France and Africa. Her novels, meanwhile, are often divided according to tone and geography, between the grim portrayal of West African settings and the relatively upbeat (and more popular) novels of migration to the French hexagon. This article compares two novels encompassing this apparent divide – Tu t'appelleras Tanga (1988) and Le petit prince de Belleville (1992) – with a focus on Beyala's vision of the urban landscape as an inscription of a bilateral history. These texts present contrasting portraits of urbanism that seem to confirm the dichotomies of globalisation, and yet the juxtaposition suggests that "global city" and "megacity" alike come up against the interpretive predispositions of Beyala's reading public. While the narrative of the "Third-World" slum city can be paralysed by the very extremes that characterise public expectation for a vocabulary of disaster, the persistent segregation of the Parisian landscape suggests a tension between French republicanist universalism and the extra-national ambitions of the "First-World" global city.

Key Words: Beyala, Calixthe • urbanism • global city • megacity • French republicanism


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.