Introduction : instrumentalizing performance and the Francophone postcolonial performative -- Cultural trauma and ritual re-membering : Werewere Liking's Les mains veulent dire -- The dramatist as epic performer : Eugène Dervain's Saran, ou la reine scélérate -- The power and the pleasures of dramatized narrative : Bernard Zadi Zaourou's La guerre des femmes -- Theatre as writing and voice : Patrick Chamoiseau's Manman dlo contre la fée carabosse -- Tradition instrumentalized : Elie Stephenson's O mayouri -- Militariat grotesqueries and tragic lament : Tchicaya u Tam'si's Le destin glorieux du maréchal nnikon nniku, prince qu'on sort and le bal de ndinga -- From the grotesque to the fantastic : Sony Labou Tansi's Qui a mangé Madame d'Avoine Bergotha? -- Exile and the failure of the nation; or, diasporic subjectivity from below : Simone Schwarz-Bart's Ton beau capitaine -- Conclusion : Francophone theatres in the age of globalization
Summary
Staging a new politics of performance in the African diaspora
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-194) and index
