Marginality and Surrogation

Revision with unchanged content. Through a reading of a father's death as allegory of dislocated culture, this work reevaluates the effects of the botched funerary rituals in Mudimbe's Entre les eaux (1973), Ousmane Sembne's film, Guelwaar (1993), and Justine Mintsa's Histoire d'Awu (2000). The book involves the interdisciplinary debates on postcolonial Africans' quest for identity. Some African scholars urge the return to pre-colonial Africa. Others promote cultural mtissage. Can these solutions efficiently address the dilemma related to the adversarial space of colonial authority? This book reflects on the issues of marginal realities that trigger the surrogation process towards restoration of citizenship. It engages debates in philosophy, literary criticism, visual and performance arts, and cultural studies both from a poststructuralist/deconstructionist perspective and performance theories. Based on Homi Bhabha's concept of the agonistic space of colonial authority in mimicry, a particular focus is set on a critical approach to Rei Terada's philosophical reading of Derrida's concept of selfdifference in the interaction between emotion and the death of the subject. This book is addressed to scholars and students in African literature, visual arts and socio-cultural discourses.