Hypolite Amany Boussou

The preface discourse of African epistolary novels Hypolite Amany Boussou

The preface apparatus of the African epistolary novel is part of a dialogical process with the reader. Three types of prefaces dominate the African epistolary novel. These are the auctorial, actorial and authentic prefaces, which fulfil various functions. First, the first is either performative or paradigmatic. Secondly, the second one ensures a homodiegetic or autodiegetic posture. Finally, the third one is extradiegetic. From the point of view of their ideological value, these three prefaces are successively articulated around the didactic, societal and moral, historical and cultural dimension. But whatever the typology, the preface seeks to seduce the reader by praising the themes, the ideas conveyed, the plot, the objective being to ensure a good reading of the text. Even if this unknown "world" does not allow for a direct focus on the meaning of the work, it does, however, give a glimpse of the richness of the interior of the letters. The prefatory material favours the emergence of the epistolary novelistic creation.