Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | In a postcolonial perspective, magical realism is generally associated with Latin American literary production, even if the works of some African authors writing in English and in French are increasingly analysed in terms of magical realism. However, the impact of this literary movement on Arabic literature is still largely understudied. Sudan offers several examples of authors whose fiction could be considered as belonging to magical realism. A better understanding of Sudanese magical realism and its criticism in Arabic may reveal some shortcomings of the Euro-American theory and enlarge its definition. For instance, the idea that the social and political criticism of magical realism focuses on the West as a colonial agent does not fit the Sudanese examples: the Sudanese authors concentrate their criticism on national political powers, the colonial past being often secondary. A second example is the language: Euro-American criticism considers that African magical realism authors ‘africanize’ the languages of the former colonial powers, as a form of cultural revenge; however, the status of Arabic in Sudan cannot fit this theory. A third example: religious hybridity in Latin American and African magical realism is considered to result from the encounter between Christianity and local beliefs. But the Sudanese examples clearly underline the encounter between Islam and African beliefs, a dimension which is absent in Euro-American postcolonial criticism. |
