Beyond Darkness. Representation and Explication of Violence in Congolese Literature after 1960

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Susanne Gehrmann; Professorin Dr. Marie Guthmüller
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; African, American and Oceania Studies
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 522141580

Based on Congolese authors’ critical and productive examination of the topos of the Congo as “the heart of darkness,” our project asks how acts of violence are portrayed in post-1960 Congolese literature (DRC) and in which explicative contexts the narratives are placed. The focus of our research centers on forms of violence such as torture, rape, mutilation, and murder, i.e. extreme forms of physical violence for which the Congo seems to stand almost paradigmatically, both in history and in literature, from the early colonial era under Léopold II to the Congo Wars in the 21st century. In order to comprehensively illuminate and interconnect the literary debates on violence that have arisen locally and in the diaspora since independence, our project combines perspectives from Romance studies and African studies, and examines francophone literature, but also texts in Swahili. The text corpus of the investigation—partially to still be established through field research—is comprised not only of novels, but also of lyrical and theatrical depictions of violence typical of local literary production in cities such as Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Goma, and Bukavu. The tentative hypothesis of our project locates a change in the depiction and explication of violence in literary works by Congolese authors in the late 1990s, which historically coincides with the effects of the genocide in Rwanda on the Congolese eastern provinces and the end of Mobutu’s regime. Our analysis departs from the provisional finding that this change in the representation of violence manifests itself in a turning away from a focused examination of colonial power structures and a narrative of violence and counter-violence, as well as in a reduced interest in the metaphorical-discursive examination of colonial topoi such as “the heart of darkness.” The corpus is thus to be examined along three lines of inquiry: (I) Is Congolese literature in dialogue with postcolonial and social science theories of violence (e.g. Fanon, Arendt, Mamdani, Mbembe, Reemtsma) and if so, how can this be traced in the texts? (II) In the way violence is narrated and negotiated, is there a tension between texts that originate in the DRC, are primarily aimed at a local audience, are staged and usually also published locally, and texts from the diaspora that primarily address western audiences? If so, how is this expressed in the course of literary history, from the 1960s to the present? (III) What contribution can literature, poetry, prose, and theater make to the coming to terms with of trauma, the development of resilience, and the facilitation of reconciliation? What are the interrelationships between local literature and diaspora literature, and can these categories, which are initially used here heuristically, be meaningfully distinguished?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Belgium, Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Italy, Republic of the Congo
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Charles Djungu Simba; Professor Dr. Pierre Halen; Professorin Dr. Olga Hél-Bongo; Dr. Jean-Claude Kangomba; Professor Dr. Sim Kilosho Kabale; Dr. Maeline le Lay; Professor Dr. Maurice Amuri Mpala-Lutebele; Professorin Dr. Silvia Riva; Dr. Daniel Tödt
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Lutz Diegner; Dr. Albert Kasanda; Professorin Dr. Alena Rettová