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Black Paris: The African Writers' Landscape
Black Paris documents the struggles and successes of three generations of African writers as they strive to establish their artistic, literary, and cultural identities in France. Based on long-term ethnographic, archival, and historical research, the work is enriched by interviews with many writers of the new generation.
Bennetta Jules-Rosette explores African writing and identity in France from the early négritude movement and the founding of the Présence Africaine publishing house in 1947 to the mid-1990s. Examining the relationship between African writing and French anthropology as well as the emergence of new styles and discourses, Jules-Rosette covers French Pan-Africanism and the revolutionary writing of the 1960s and 1970s. She also discusses the new generation of African writers who appeared in Paris during the 1980s and 1990s.
Bennetta Jules-Rosette explores African writing and identity in France from the early négritude movement and the founding of the Présence Africaine publishing house in 1947 to the mid-1990s. Examining the relationship between African writing and French anthropology as well as the emergence of new styles and discourses, Jules-Rosette covers French Pan-Africanism and the revolutionary writing of the 1960s and 1970s. She also discusses the new generation of African writers who appeared in Paris during the 1980s and 1990s.
376 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1998
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July 3, 2024
For Americans, Paris was a revelation: "black Americans enjoy a situation in which they are finally able to live like other human beings - to drink a cup of coffee, for example, in a cafe full of whites. Black Americans also exhibit an independence of mind still lacking in Africa . . . It is in the Revue du Monde Noir, founded toward the end of the 1920s by the West Indian Nardal sisters, that texts by black American authors such as Walter White or the community Claude McKay can be read." (x).
"Although negritude is not synonymous with the Presence Africaine movement, it is a discourse that was shared for over twenty years by intellectuals associated with the Presence Africaine journal and the publishing house of the same name. Negritude embodies the reactions of African and Antillian writers to European cultural and colonial experiences. Born in Paris, negritude draws its inspiration from African cultural expressions, traditions, art forms, and artifacts. During the 1970s, a significant antinegritude movement developed, yet the term continued to be popular among French publishers of African works. Following the decline of negritude in the 1970s, African writers devised a variety of identity discourses that resituated their works in the modern and postmodern contexts of global issues on the one hand, and emphasized the particular distinctions of their African identities on the other. This tension between universalism and particularism permeates the works of African writers in France." (2).
Different ways to think of the genealogy of Black though in Paris, mentions "Beyala's Le Petit prince de Belleville (1992) but her 1993 sequel, Maman a un amant, is barely mentioned . . . The vulnerable protagonists of Parisianism are not exemplars of national glory. In fact, they often reject their cultures of origin and are equally cynical about France.. . Although cultural pride is not absent from their works, the atavistic attachment to an idyllic image of Africa characteristic of the literature of the 1950s, has vanished." (182).
The concept of a genre is a double-edged sword. Although sales require packaging by genre, freedom of expression is constrained by being boxed in by genres with rigid conventions. The formulae of genre writing, like the conventions of classical poetry, discipline and constrain authors" (185).
"The vicious cycle of poverty and exclusion has entrapped Traore and his family, leaving htem practically no way out. Traore's madness is his only solace" (190).
"Although negritude is not synonymous with the Presence Africaine movement, it is a discourse that was shared for over twenty years by intellectuals associated with the Presence Africaine journal and the publishing house of the same name. Negritude embodies the reactions of African and Antillian writers to European cultural and colonial experiences. Born in Paris, negritude draws its inspiration from African cultural expressions, traditions, art forms, and artifacts. During the 1970s, a significant antinegritude movement developed, yet the term continued to be popular among French publishers of African works. Following the decline of negritude in the 1970s, African writers devised a variety of identity discourses that resituated their works in the modern and postmodern contexts of global issues on the one hand, and emphasized the particular distinctions of their African identities on the other. This tension between universalism and particularism permeates the works of African writers in France." (2).
Different ways to think of the genealogy of Black though in Paris, mentions "Beyala's Le Petit prince de Belleville (1992) but her 1993 sequel, Maman a un amant, is barely mentioned . . . The vulnerable protagonists of Parisianism are not exemplars of national glory. In fact, they often reject their cultures of origin and are equally cynical about France.. . Although cultural pride is not absent from their works, the atavistic attachment to an idyllic image of Africa characteristic of the literature of the 1950s, has vanished." (182).
The concept of a genre is a double-edged sword. Although sales require packaging by genre, freedom of expression is constrained by being boxed in by genres with rigid conventions. The formulae of genre writing, like the conventions of classical poetry, discipline and constrain authors" (185).
"The vicious cycle of poverty and exclusion has entrapped Traore and his family, leaving htem practically no way out. Traore's madness is his only solace" (190).
Displaying 1 of 1 review