Going from Exile to Exile. The "Great Wandering" in La plus secrète mémoire des hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Abstract

This study analyzes the theme of exile in the novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes by Senegalese writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, dedicated to Yambo Ouologuem, a great Malian author who won the Renaudot Prize in 1968 for Le devoir de violence. This work, now recognized as a masterpiece, was withdrawn from the market and removed from the Seuil publishing house's catalog upon its release. The writer, after experiencing success, was accused of plagiarism, attacked, and insulted by the press. Deeply shaken, he retired to his native village, where he lived in total isolation until his death in 2017. Yambo Ouologuem is undoubtedly the model for the Senegalese writer T. C. Elimane, (also accused of plagiarism), who haunts the main narrator, the young writer Diégane Latyr Faye, determined at all costs to uncover his story and fate. Several narrators, including real writers like Gombrowicz and other fictional ones, in an extraordinary interlocking manner, strive to reconstruct the life and destiny of Elimane, the true protagonist of the novel, even though he is absent since he mysteriously disappeared a long time ago. Several characters have lived or still live in this state of exile, and each reflects on their own experience. As we discover their testimonies, we realize that exile is fundamentally only an especially intense, extreme trial of what constitutes the state of unease and solitude of every human being in the world, up to the fatal outcome of death. However, this harsh initiation can lead to a harmonious fulfillment if one understands and accepts a life illuminated by the indissoluble link between the past and the future.