Description
Book SynopsisAfrique sur Seine addresses the development since the 1950s of a new type of Francophone African novel created by first-generation black African authors living in France. Drawing parallels with other literatures like the beur and Antillean novels, Odile Cazenave examines how these authors, men and women, are parting from mainstream African literature by exploring more personal avenues while retaining a shared interest in the community of African emigrants. Cazenave deftly shows us how these writers maneuver between two cultures, languages, and spheres of being, and how they struggle to appeal to their French audience without being untrue to the complex history and reality they portray. Cazenave further discusses the stereotyping often promoted by French publishing houses to sell African-authored texts, and its impact. At a time when immigration is an important issue in France, and when post-colonial identity and culture is the object of still increasing interest and attention, Afrique
Trade ReviewParis was the birth place of the Negritude movement in the 1930s. Half a century later, African literature has been born again on the banks of the Seine River. Cazenave's keen and comprehensive study is a giant step towards the deciphering of this new transnational writing. -- Ambroise Kom, Holy Cross University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Literary Explorations: Negotiation of Identity Gaps Chapter 3 Language and Identities: When "I" Stops Being "the Other" Chapter 4 The Addressee: Africa or the Seine? Chapter 5 Specificities of the New Writings of Self Chapter 6 Conclusion
