Abstract:
Entitled "L՚étude de la description dans Une vie de Maupassant et Les soleils des indépendances d՚Ahmadou Kourouma", the work looks at how description is realised through different procedures and its importance in the two novels. The study is based on the interpretative approach and data collected is analysed using the theoretical framework proposed by Genette (2001) and Hammon (1989). The study discovers that descriptions in the two texts are realised by similar procedures and perform similar functions. According to the study, description holds a tripartite relationship between the thing described or created by the writer, the writer and the reader (the person to whom the created thing is presented. The study further establishes that description performs symbolic, aesthetic, and informative functions in the two novels. It also notes that description plays symbolic function when the object, the place or the person described becomes a sign or symbol of another thing or entity. In addition, the description assumes the aesthetic function when it makes “beautiful or ugly” and becomes an affective index in the story. Finally, the informative function talks about the knowledge, the findings a writer discovers in the course of his researches and displayed in texts. This informative function mainly informs the reader on the customs of a group of persons, their traditional and religious practices, their origins. The study concludes that description contributes immensely to the development of themes in Une vie of de Maupassant and Les soleils des indépendances of Kourouma, and it also enhances the understanding of the stories. It is a process of transposing imagination into realty thereby ensuring the participation of the reader in the development of the plot of the two novels.
