“The Written Word, What For? Exploring Genre as Written Memory and Connection over Time”

Why is it so important to continue reading modern and contemporary French and Francophone literature? And what does this mean for a real relationship between author and reader that can grow and change over time? Through the literary analysis of two contemporary French novels-- Maryse Condé’s Tales from the Heart: True Stories from My Childhood (1999) and Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter (1979)—I demonstrate how it is each author’s use of mixed genre that allows for a connection of author to reader, but also reader to self. In each work, this mixed genre can become a generative, reconciliatory space where the broader themes of memory and self-identity are directly addressed. As stated by French author and translator Daniel Poirion, the space of genre in literature can even be compared to that of song: “The art of the song and that of the book share the same function: the struggle against forgetfulness, against the disappearance or evaporation of words over time.”