Afroeuropean peripheral mobilities in francophone African literatures

Abstract

Paris is the axiomatic centre of francophone African literary representations of Europe. Focusing on narratives that revise Paris-centeredness, this article explores francophone African representations of European peripheries from the perspective of Afroeuropean (im)mobilities. The article shows how, in novels by Michèle Rakotoson, Kidi Bebey, Simon Njami, and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, three specific Afroeuropean mobile subjectivities, namely the newcomer, the holidaymaker, and the clandestine migrant, produce very different meanings of European peripheries. While the meanings of peripheral spaces in the novels vary and, thus, attest to the complexity of the concept of the periphery and point to a shift from a national framework towards a continental one, the texts simultaneously articulate the perpetual pull of traditional centres.