Traces et énoncés d'autrui dans La petite fille du réverbère de Calixthe Beyala

Abstract

Calixthe Beyala has in the past been accused of plagiarism. This article sets out to determine if Beyala is still guilty of illicit borrowing in her self-referential novel, La petite fille du réverbère. Theories on the interpenetration of lives, dialogism, transtextuality, polyphony and alterity will be invoked to study the phenomenon of heterogeneity at play in the novel. The paper concludes that as a transcoding, reformulating and creolizing agent, the narrator, who is the writer’s double, resorts to diverse legimate discursive strategies to rethink, refute and transcend the speech of others but steers clear of plagiarism.