Un autre imaginaire de l’Autre : chaos et relation dans Babyface de Koffi Kwahulé
Imagining the Other Another Way: Chaos and Relation in Babyface by Koffi Kwahulé

Summary/Abstract: What types of narratives for imagining and articulating otherness in the present era do contemporary works of literature draw out? This article examinesKoffi Kwahulé’s obscure first novel, Babyface(2006), to propose a possible answer. Viaa close reading, in concert with EduardGlissant’s notion of relationality, I argue thatKwahulé’s text offers a vision of alterity thatcircumvents the binary logic at the root ofthe civil war in Ivory Coast during the 1990s,upon which much of the plot pivots. Rather,by weaving together disparate voices andplotlines, Babyface teaches the reader newconstructs for understanding self and other.

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