Paradise lost and lush green fields: figures of utopia in the writings of Léopold Sédar Senghor
Abstract
Léopold Sédar Senghor was a thinker and poet of Négritude, and also a politician, a member of the French National Assembly in the context where decolonization was inevitable. With the theoretical support of Paul Ricœur, this article explores Senghor's utopia in order to reflect on the function of these unreal places in his thought and to restore his vision of the future. Both the Kingdom of the Sine and Confederate France - the figures of his eutopia - were presented as harmonious communities by which to imagine the future. If Senghor does not challenge colonial ideology with a conservative utopia, where the Kingdom of the Sine would regain its ancient form, but with that of a federal thus decolonized France, where equality of political, civic and social rights between members of a plurinational state would obtain, the question of knowing if he was a utopian remains.
Keywords:
Léopold Sédar Senghor, Paul Ricœur, French Federal Republic, decolonization, AfrotopiaReferences
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Institut des mondes africains https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6064-2094
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