Francophone Poetics in Tension: Intuition, Relation, and Exiguity from Senghor to Canadian Minority Voices

Abstract

This article explores a dynamic comparative framework between African and Canadian Francophone literatures, focusing on Léopold Sédar Senghor’s poetics of intuition and its resonances with minority writing in Canada. By introducing the concept of co-poetics, the essay investigates the aesthetic interplay of rhythm, opacity, and marginality across postcolonial and diasporic contexts. Drawing on the philosophies of Bergson and Glissant, the article analyzes how authors such as Abla Farhoud, France Daigle, and Rodney Saint-Éloi engage with multilingualism, fragmented memory, and the tension between language and identity. Far from forming a unified vision, these literatures articulate dissonance as a creative force and exiguity as an epistemological stance. The result is a plurivocal “poetics of the edge” that redefines Francophone writing beyond national or linguistic centers. This article contributes to postcolonial literary theory by offering co-poetics as a conceptual tool to map intercultural resonances between African and Canadian literary margins.

Keywords: Francophone literatures, Senghor, minority writing, co-poetics, exiguity, postcolonial theory

DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/84-06

Publication date: July 31^st 2025