ABSTRACT
Afropean (Afro-European) is a relatively new term that has been presented as a potentially important discursive category in the literary representation of Africans in Europe. Francophone Afropean literature can be read through an ethnographic approach that focuses on the specificities of the African diaspora and blackness as a visual marker of difference for 'francais d'origine' of African descent. "Afropean Soul" and Blues pour Elise enact Leonora Miano's conception of Francophone Afropean subjectivity as multiple linguistic and cultural affiliations in different ways. The chapter argues that both Afropean Soul and Blues pour Elise are characterized by heteroglossia or multiple speech types, not least as a result of the insertion of black music in the text. Through the extensive use of black music as a "singing voice" that textures the lived experience of blackness, the novel frames music as an expressive language of Afro-diasporic cultural affiliation.
