Circumventing Censorship on the University Campus Through the Analysis of a Dramatic Text

In 2016, Beninese police moved onto the university campus in Abomey-Calavi to control the violent student demonstrations which led to the invalidation of the 2015-16 academic year in the Faculté des Lettres, Arts et Sciences Humaines and the turmoil that turn of events subsequently risked causing. This local form of censorship was amplified by nationwide breaches of freedom of speech and opinion. How did the university react to all this? Certain teachers and students used educational activities as a pretext for overcoming the drastic restrictions to their freedoms. This article argues that the analysis of purposefully selected dramatic fiction can be employed in the critique of genuine infringements to freedom, and also in the identification of ways in which individuals overcome those infringements. Participant observation and the concept known as the "Horizon of Social Expectation" are applied to dramaturgical texts. The first part of the article provides a brief description of the political context, the strategic positioning of contributors and their respective levels of involvement in the pedagogical experience. This contextualisation then leads to the second part: a presentation of the results of the analysis conducted on paratextual data and the two dramaturgical categories of the theatrical text itself.