Le carnavalesque dans le roman camerounais contemporain: Camerouniaseries de Christian Kuate

This paper analyzes the fictional representation of Cameroon from a Bakhtinian reading of the novel Camerouniaiseries. En apnée sous le soleil of Cameroonian writer Christian Kuate. We are interested in the textualization of carnival in the French-speaking African novel, because very often “African demonstrations of humour call upon those processes termed ‘carnivalesque’ by Bakhtin. This paper presents the figure of the “world upside down” that is typical of carnivalspirit according to Bakhtin, in relation to the thought of Cameroonian political philosopher Achille Mbembe. After giving a brief account of the novel, the argument goes on to analyze passages that stage hierarchical reversals typical of carnival imagery.