LE CORPS EXILE, UNE METAPHORE DU SYNCRETISME SPIRITUEL DANS LES RECITS INITIATIQUES DE GASTON-PAUL EFFA

Le Dieu perdu dans l’herbe and La verticale du cri by Gaston-Paul Effa are initiatory tales in
which the main characters navigate from one space to another in search of spiritual and/or
philosophical knowledge. Using semiotics according to Algirdas Julien Greimas, an
interpretative analysis of the modalities of their bodies was carried out for ideological
purposes. Consequently, the body of the exiled characters is expressed as an estuary of
scattered spiritual values: this is interspirituality. They thereby acquire a “rhizome-
identity”. However, their growing interest in animist values leads them to turn away from
their heterogeneities, to focus on animist values (this is the assumed identity). This
preference of animism over exotic knowledge is an assumed choice that is part of the
author’s philosophy. In both fictions, Gaston-Paul Effa strives to revive animist values
from the ashes and suggests they are a path leading to the state of nature.