Des ombres coloniales aux inégalités modernes : analyse décoloniale des discriminations et de la résilience dans la littérature francophone d’Afrique et de sa diaspora.

Abstract

This thesis investigates the enduring impact of colonial structures on contemporary forms of inequality. It examines how Francophone literature from Africa and its diaspora articulate both the persistence of discrimination and the strategies of resistance developed by subaltern subjects. Drawing on a corpus that spans over a century, from Batouala by René Maran and Une vie de boy by Ferdinand Oyono to contemporary works such as Boza ! by Ulrich Cabrel and Étienne Longueville, Enfant des lieux bannis by ROST, Le Ventre de l’Atlantique by Fatou Diome, and Vivre à l’arrache by El Driss, this study demonstrates that modernity does not move from colonial logics but instead reshapes and perpetuates them in new forms. Anchored in decolonial theory, particularly the works of Aníbal Quijano, Enrique Dussel, Ramón Grosfoguel, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Walter Mignolo, and Frantz Fanon, the thesis mobilizes key concepts such as the coloniality of power, being, and knowledge to analyze literary representations of domination, racialization, dehumanization, and exclusion. It argues that contemporary inequalities, whether racial, economic, epistemic, or symbolic, are not anomalies of modern systems but rather the transformed continuities of colonial violence, embedded within global dynamics of migration, labor exploitation and epistemic hierarchy. Methodologically, the study adopts a comparative, hermeneutic and interdisciplinary approach, privileging a “reading from the margins” which foregrounds subaltern voices, lived experiences, and alternative epistemologies. Through textual analysis, the study reveals that Francophone literature operates as a critical space where historical trauma is not only narrated but contested and re-signified. The texts examined give voice to subjects relegated to what Maldonado-Torres conceptualizes as the “zone of non-being,” while simultaneously staging acts of resistance and processes of rehumanization. Ultimately, the thesis highlights that resilience in these works is collective and expressed through memory, narrative, solidarity, spirituality, creative and political engagement, which challenge structures of exclusion. The study positions Francophone literature as a laboratory of decolonial thought that exposes the contradictions of modernity and envisions pluriversal futures. By restoring dignity to subaltern voices and contesting universalism, these texts contribute to the reconfiguration of global narratives and the emergence of more just and plural forms of humanity.