Entangled rhythms of life in Dakar. Subject, community and time in Pape Pathé Diops La Poubelle (1984)

Abstract

Taking the example of Pape Pathé Diop's urban novel La poubelle (1984), the present article demonstrates that the description of structures and functions in the Global South city requires not only spatial but also temporal categories. Starting from the guiding metaphors of transitivity, daily rhythm and footprint effects developed by urban geographers Amin and Thrift (2002), as well as from Achille Mbembe’s concept of time of entanglement, the paper analyzes the different regimes of temporality and the temporal entanglements that determine the relation between subject and community in Dakar. It shows that by focussing on temporality, Diop manages to integrate in his portrait of Dakar historical dimensions as well as global entanglements.
Keywords: City inthe Global South; Temporality; Entanglement