"I AM AN INDIVIDUAL". THE PROJECT OF INDIVIDUALITY IN THE NOVELS OF DANY LAFERRIERE

JIMMY THIBEAULT "JE SUIS UN INDIVIDU". LE PROJET D'INDIVIDUALITE DANS L'CEUVRE ROMANESQUE DE DANY LAFERRIERE ("I AM AN INDIVIDUAL". THE PROJECT OF INDIVIDUALITY IN THE NOVELS OF DANY LAFERRIERE) In Dany Laferriere's Le cri des oiseaux fous, the narrator shows no compunction in asserting his individualism, claiming the right to exist as he is and where he is, regardless of origin, race or nationality. Laferriere takes up this discourse on his own behalf particularly in J'ecris comme je vis in asserting his refusal of any label that one might be tempted to use in defining his work. The individuality proclaimed by the narrator is connected with the quest for identity that appears throughout Laferriere's work. This article attempts to show how the project of individuality takes form, from Comment faire l'amour avec un Negre sans se fatiguer to L'enigme du retour, and how it is carried out under the gaze of an I that constantly invents the world it inhabits.