La valeur de l'étude stylistique de roman Frère d'âme de David Diop

Abstract

This research offers a stylistic analysis of David Diop’s novel Frère d’Âme, focusing on the literary devices used to convey trauma, memory, and postcolonial identity. The study highlights metaphor, rhythm, repetition, imagery, and personification as central techniques that shape the novel’s poetic narrative. Through these devices, Diop gives voice to the psychological collapse of Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier in World War I, whose personal grief and trauma mirror broader historical wounds. The analysis also shows how Diop’s writing transforms war into a space of memory and testimony, where silence, fragmentation, and obsessive repetition reflect the persistence of trauma. Drawing on the works of Meschonnic, Barthes, Ricœur, Genette, Caruth, and Halbwachs, the research examines the link between style and memory, arguing that literary form can serve as a vehicle of ethical remembrance. By engaging the reader through sensory descriptions and rhythmic narration, Diop forces an emotional involvement that prevents detachment. The novel thus becomes more than a war story: it is a memorial act, a voice for forgotten colonial soldiers, and a testimony against historical erasure. The findings suggest that stylistic analysis is not only a tool for understanding literary aesthetics, but also a method of uncovering how literature bears witness to suppressed histories and collective trauma. In this way, the study contributes to broader discussions of memory studies, trauma theory, and postcolonial literature.