Wounded Memory and Historical Trauma in the Literature of Equatorial Guinea. Donato Ndongo Bidyogo’s Works

Abstract

The article, based on the example of Donato Ndongo Bidyogo’s works, presents two aspects of Equatorial Guinean literature, namely memory and trauma. They are crucial for the understanding of this still young literature, written in Spanish. The consideration of selected issues developed by contemporary Equatoguinean writers gives the country’s literature a specific character. A reflection on the dramatic past and the difficult present is its recurring motif. The article is divided into four parts. The first part presents a theoretical reflection on the concept of Paul Ricouer’s “wounded memory” used in the text. The second analyses the so-called traumatic discourse in literature, and attempts to find the distinction between a traumatic event and a traumatising experience. The third part of the article presents the issues of Equatoguinean historical traumas and sketches the literary landscape of the country. The article focuses on literary strategies of collective projection, wounded memory of Equatorial Guineans and the issue of the (im)possibility o mapping trauma in literature. The last part of the text presents literary examples of the phenomena discussed in the literature of Donato Ndongo Bidyogo.