Novel
Modukpè, le rêve brisé
Not translated into English
Adélaïde Fassinou · 2000
Synopsis
Modukpè tells the story of her youth herself. Born into a polygamous household, the eldest of her mother's daughters, she bears the name of an aunt who died young. Having passed the baccalauréat, she announces that she will go to university to become a lawyer: her mother, tired of supporting her, would like her to work and marry, while her father, who counts on his daughters more than on his sons, is enthusiastic. The girl finds herself caught between two worlds, that of an excessively authoritarian father and that of a mother kept on the sidelines and resigned, and comes to challenge the laws that secure men's domination.
Context
Published by L'Harmattan in the Encres noires series, this book of about one hundred and thirty pages is the first of a series of novels and short stories. Its back cover speaks of a nervous pen fed on bitterness and revolt, of comic situations and of a humour aimed first of all at adolescents of both sexes. In 2018, a thesis defended at the University of Ibadan by Charity Oyewole studied it among six novels by Beninese women on patriarchal oppression: the heroine's mother leaves the marital home without divorcing, and the daughter challenges the family order from within.
Who it is for
For those who like coming-of-age stories in which a young girl tries to make a place for herself between her parents.
Prizes and reception
Studied in a Nigerian thesis among the novels that question patriarchy in Benin, it opens its author's body of work.
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