Urban Humanities

Cet article analyse les trajectoires pédestres de l’avant-dernier roman de Ken Bugul, Aller et retour (2013), afin d’étudier la manière dont l’auteure sénégalaise inscrit la ville de Dakar dans son roman. Ces trajectoires se trouvent au cœur d’une narration au rythme des pas, par l’intermédiaire de récits que Bigué, le personnage principal, transmet oralement à Ngoné, une jeune villageoise. Nourri par le concept de parcours chez Michel de Certeau, cet article propose ainsi un parcours littéraire et urbain. Ce faisant, Dakar prend vie à travers les mots et les pas qui l’éprouvent, dans un mouvement spatial et temporel constamment renouvelé.

In recent years, the philosophical interest in urban issues has developed into a vibrant interdisciplinary field of its own. The development is linked to the obvious consequences of the broad global phenomenon of urbanization but also due to the increasing interest in practical and multidisciplinary approaches within different branches of philosophy. Philosophy of the City as a field of contemporary thought is open to heterogeneous topics, yet at the same time, it has already proven to break disciplinary barriers and bring different, previously distant branches of philosophy together to study urban issues. Joining forces in understanding the particular challenges of the urban lifeform seems indeed necessary since many of the issues require a flexible and problem-based approach. The increase in the philosophical interest in cities is of course not unique as parallel development is taking place in many other fields. One could even state, that philosophy is a latecomer, since urban studies have been developed more systematically already since the 1960s. There are many reasons as to why modern philosophy did not show interest in cities until relatively late, such as its linguistic and analytical emphasis. The focus of traditional Western philosophy on universal issues and immutable ideas has not helped either in developing an especially well-equipped methodology to encounter urban issues. Reasons for the omission have stemmed also from the fast industrial and subsequent postindustrial development of cities globally: the city as an “object” of study has been in such a flux that pinning down its features and prominent phenomena for any meaningful reflection must have seemed like a daunting task for philosophers of past generations.