Les (dé)routes de Télémaque à Paris: l’odyssée migratoire dans Les Pieds sales d’Edem Awumey
Telemachus’ routs and routes in Paris: the migratory odyssey in Edem Awumey’s Dirty Feet

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary Francophone literature reflects the migratory movement of African writers whose literary productions, which reflect transculturality, are often referred to as "migrant literature", frequently exploring power dynamics, the situation of minorities, or integration into a hegemonic society (micro- vs. macro-) in the postcolonial era. However, this concept is not limited to linguistic, thematic, or geocultural aspects specific to Africa, but is part of global literature. In the twenty-first century, new Francophone voices have made themselves heard. They no longer seek to define their identity in the (post)colonial context, but rather explore complex migration routes to join other migrants in the "global village". Edem Awumey, a Togolese author who is part of the African diaspora – Africa, Europe, and North America – is an example of an engaged author who is concerned with this contemporary subject. Inspired by the young Africans he met in the port of Tangier, he set out to write a novel, Dirty feet (2009), which confronts the protagonist, Askia, with a journey of identity through several geographical and cultural universes, reflecting in some way his own experience. Our contribution proposes a study of the series of displacements of an "obscure and preoccupied" Telemachus in the Parisian labyrinth where multiple cultural threads intertwine, while analysing the power of irradiation of the myth that inspires the creative process and that manifests itself in the writing of migration.

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