Le nécromonde de Monénembo: les femmes et les roues dans Bled (2016) et Saharienne Indigo (2022).

Abstract

In his two latest novels, Bled (2016) and Saharienne indigo (2022), Monénembo tells the story of marginalised women on the run. Freedom and mobility are at the centre of these two texts, which highlight the threat of thwarted (i.e. continually compromised and limited) mobility for these women. The necroworld described by Achille Mbembe (2016), where people live under the threat of death, is home to a particular type of thwarted movement. According to Janet Wolff (1993) all movement begins with a position, and it is the position of these women in the necroworld created by Monénembo, and their presence there as women, that conditions their freedom. Monénembo's aesthetic emerges in his use of rhythm and form, especially in his depictions of flight and the wheel. Through an analysis of short extracts on escape and feeling, and an examination of the significance of the trope of the wheel in these novels, this article will answer two questions: how can the representation of travel help us to understand the entanglement of mobility and freedom? And in a context of uneven gendered power, what form does débrouillardise take?