STYLISTIC CHOICES AND FUNCTIONS IN SELECTED NOVELS OF CALIXTHE BEYALA

Abstract

Francophone novels, including Calixthe Beyala’s, are prominent for their stylistic choices and aesthetics. Previous studies on Calixthe Beyala's novels focused largely on feminism, anti-patriarchal preoccupation and graphical portrayals of sex and violence, with little attention paid to the connection between stylistic features and thematic concerns. This study was, therefore, designed to examine stylistic choices and functions in the novel of Calixthe Beyala, with a view to determining the stylistic strategies deployed to negotiate meaning in relation to her socio-cultural context. M.A.K Haliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar was adopted as the framework, while the interpretative design was used. Four novels of Calixthe Beyala, were purposefully selected because of their thematic and stylistic relevance. The texts were subjected to the ‘explication de texte’. Five linguistic choices are deployed in the novels: diction, sentence structure, literary tone, figurative expressions and sound devices. Diction is seen in the use of pidgin ‘mec’, ‘caca’ and ‘babingues’ in TTT, derogatory words ‘pute’ in TTT and word contractions ‘p’tet’ in MAA, as the language of the narrators to reflect familiar situations and that of characters in their regular interactions. The variation in sentence structure captures the multiple layers of the characters’ feelings and attitude. Short and truncated sentences are used for exclamation ‘Grand Dieu!’ in MAA, derogation ‘t’es malade ou quoi?’ in CSB and expression of snub ‘pourquoi pas a Paris?’ in TTT. The tone is set by the attitudes and feelings of the narrators or some characters: sadness in Aissatou's song in CCM expressing unreciprocated love, disillusionment by Mariam (MAA) whose expectation of a better life crashes in spite of her migration to France, pessimism about African men's show of affection to their spouses in MAA. Figurative expression, rooted in African oral traditions such as proverbs and metaphors are used in the texts. The proverbs ‘a chaque jour suffit sa peine’ in CSM, and ‘le vent a des oreilles’ in TTT convey fatalism and wisdom. Metaphoric expressions such as ‘l’acceuil est glacial’ in CSB and ‘tu as des mains de passoir’ in TTT explicate coldness of mothers’ unwelcoming towards their daughters who come home empty-handed and women’s extravagant lifestyles. Sound devices such as reiteration, syntactic parallelism and dialogue are deployed for narrative aesthetics. The reiteration of ‘je voulais…’ in CSB conveys the obsession of a wish, while musicality is enforced with rhythmic reiteration. Syntactic parallelism runs across the texts. In CCM, Aissatou reacts four times ‘un temps pour…’ with corresponding syntactical relations ‘partir’, ‘retrouver’, ‘perdre’ and ‘revenir’, to heighten a pleasing melody. Beyala uses dialogue copiously in TTT, CCM and CSB to express feelings. Ada in CSB addresses Jean: ‘ceux qui s'occupent des culottes et oublient de s'occuper de la carrotte …’ to evoke the resonance of ‘culottes’ and ‘carrotte’ Stylistic choices in Calixthe Beyala's novel are characterised by diction, syntactic structure, literary tone, figurative expressions and sound devices that reflect situations, feelings and masculinity.