In his latest publication, Koerner Fellow Christopher Miller sheds new light on Yambo Ouologuem’s epochal 1968 novel Le Devoir de violence (Bound to Violence), which won its author acclaim and then led to his disgrace on charges of plagiarism. Refusing to defend himself, Ouologuem (1940–2017) quit the Parisian literary world and returned to a definitive silence in Mali. Professor Miller’s research reveals that the borrowings from other authors are more extensive than previously thought. His new study attempts to provide both a complete table of the borrowings in Le Devoir de violence and a new theory of their meaning. Dispelling accusations that the borrowings are minor, negligible, or criminal, Professor Miller interprets them as artful “thresholds,” openings to a profound reconsideration of African history. He argues that Ouologuem set up this system of borrowings as a way to invite readers down unexpected paths of meaning, that these passages are not mere stunts, and that they are inseparable from Ouologuem’s radical revision of African history and his views of Negritude. The table of borrowings in part three of the book is intended to serve as a resource for readers and scholars.
Christopher L. Miller is the Frederick Clifford Ford Professor Emeritus of French and African American Studies 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).
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