Discourse as disjunctive virtualization between here and elsewhere in “Le Ventre de l’Atlantique” by Fatou Diome

Abstract

In the semiotic approach, the question of discourse appears as an essential postulate. Its 
analysis allows us to construct, identify, define and deploy the different layers of the meaning of a 
statement. According to Jacques Fontanille (2003), the different inflections of discourse generate the 
production of signifying forms. Subsequent to this meaning, we recognize the discourse's capacity to 
actualize representations. From this perception, the question of virtualization as a projection of a 
potentially realizable reality cannot depart from the enunciation of the actants engaged in a narrative 
program where space profoundly determines the meaning of the discourse. If we relate this observation to the work of Fatou Diome, we understand more easily the disjunction between two 
spaces, between two social realities and between two universes whose actants are nevertheless so 
close in an adelphic manner. In this communication, we will see how, from the semiotic approach, 
we can analyze the question of spatial disjunction in the discourse of the actors and put this reality 
into perspective with virtualization which appears as a promise, a lure, a chimera