Généalogie du banal : la quête du lieu commun dans Fatheralong de John Edgar Widerman

摘要

This paper stems from a question : how is the very idea of banality to be interconnected to autobiographical Afro-American writing ? In Fatheralong, Wideman describes his quest for what he terms a "common ground", a locus from which to start rebuilding a daily life. By tracing the various stages of this quest, by drawing upon several meanings of the word "banal", and by focusing on inner mechanisms of Wideman's writing, this essay intends to show that, ultimately, it is the text itself that the author posits as common ground.