ABSTRACT
One can see in Aminata Sow Fall a clear desire to disengage herself from the traditional novel's conventions. The characters of Aminata Sow Fall speak a Senegalized French; which leads to deliberate repetition of cliches, the play of stereotypes in the dialogues, and the frequent use of Wolof to express aspects of reality foreign to the borrowed language. Linguistic distortion also implies distortion of borrowed literary forms. Some readers criticize the lack of individuality in Aminata Sow Fall's characters. And yet, all the humor and/or irony of the language lies in this resurgence of stereotypes. The insistent repetition of stereotyped expressions is in a way a denunciation of the emptiness of words, hackneyed words which no longer mean much and whose voicing transmits nothing but sound. An enunciation is defined in relationship to its verbal surroundings.
