Sarcouncil Journal of Arts and Literature Aims & Scope

Abstract: Between theory and life lies a zone of incandescence where literature itself begins to think. This is where contemporary Francophone autotheory unfolds: a mode of writing in which the “I” becomes a tool for observing the world. Through the works of Dany Laferrière (Haiti–Montreal), Naomi Fontaine (Uashat, Quebec), Gabriel Osson (Toronto, Ontario), and Guy Gauthier (Saint-Boniface, Manitoba), this study shows how subjectivity—far from narcissism—operates as a form of knowledge rooted in the body, memory, and relation. These authors transform vulnerability into method, and detail into critical experience. In this sense, autotheory emerges as an embodied practice of thought, a way of grasping reality at the level of lived existence. Drawing on Meizoz, Paré, and Glissant, the article argues that these writers relocate theoretical reflection to the margins, where authorial posture becomes an act of connection. In dialogue with Fournier and Savard-Corbeil, it introduces the concept of minoritarian autotheory, understood as an epistemological practice of emancipation: writing from the peripheries to generate situated, sensory knowledge. In this light, literature becomes a cognitive and ethical space—thinking through rhythm, image, and silence. From the edges of language and culture, it reinvents how we inhabit the world and keeps alive the fragile promise of meaning.