Les Batouala illustrés ou une question de cases et de casques. Dynamiques de resémantisation iconique d’un roman « in-européen »

This study examines the three illustrated luxury editions of René Maran’s seminal 1921 anti-colonial novel Batouala, created by Alexandre Iacovleff (1928), Miguel Covarrubias (1932), and Paul-Émile Bécat (1947). Analyzing the dialogue between text and image, it argues that the paratextual illustrations are not mere decorations but active sites of ‘resemanticization’. The analysis demonstrates how the iconography oscillates between a subtle subversion of colonial norms – through the appropriation of indigenous Oubanguian motifs like the garaba headdress and murals – and an eventual assimilation into colonial discourse, particularly in Bécat’s 1947 edition. The shifting visual representations of key elements, such as the ga’nza ceremony, reveal a continuous negotiation and transformation of the novel’s political meaning across different cultural and temporal contexts.