Journal of Transnational American Studies

This article examines how Florida is depicted in Passages (1991) by Émile Ollivier and in Cette grenade dans la main du jeune nègre est-elle une arme ou un fruit? (2002) by Dany Laferrière. The theoretical framework for this examination is “imagology,” which Jean-Marc Mourra describes as the study of the literary representation of Otherness. According to Mourra, this representation can be utopian or ideological. In the first category, Otherness is portrayed in a positive way, while in the second category, the portrayal is negative. The representation of Florida in the above novels swings between the two.