À propos de la mixité générique: l'exemple des contes autobiographiques (Maryse Condé)

Abstract

In her first autobiography (Le coeur à rire et à pleurer. Contes vrais de mon enfance), Maryse Condé retraces his childhood in Guadeloupe as a series of stand-alone tales. The meeting of seemingly incompatible genres results in a new form of self-narratives and a new autobiographical strategy that focuses on a few key events of childhood. We consider here, in particular, the phenomena of "generic mixture" by querying about the possibilities of self-narratives through tales. We demonstrate that each tale follows a prototypical pattern of narrative sequences: a fully developed Initial Situation and Complications, followed by Actions, and a Resolution (with or without a Final Situation) promptly exposed. This compositional organization not only sketches the socio-cultural context but promotes the employment of the personal and moral development of the heroine, who in each tale must accomplish any task, fails or triumphs over trials of her life.