African and Maghreb Literature

Khalid Lyamlahy St Anne’s College, Oxford

1 Francophone Sub-Saharan African romans’, ib., 111–123, explores the representa- Literature tion of the environment in a selection of novels by Mauritian authors Jean-Marie Gustave Le Several publications reflect the growing inter- Clézio, Carl de Souza, and Malcolm de Chazal, est in Francophone literature from Mauritius and analyses their various forms of engage- and the Comoro Islands. Markus Arnold, La Lit- ment with ecological and social issues in the térature mauricienne contemporaine: Un espace island. Emmanuel Bruno Jean-François, ‘Géo- de création postcolonial entre revendications graphies insulaires, frontières territoriales et identitaires et ouvertures interculturelles, LIT, écologies politiques: Rodrigues et les Chagos, 562 pp., provides an extensive overview of ces “étrangères” de la nation mauricienne’, ib., Mauritian literature through the lens of post- 124–139, discusses two recent novels, Shenaz colonialism and interculturality. A. probes a Patel’s Le Silence des Chagos and Ananda Devi’s broad corpus of Francophone and Anglo- Soupir, focusing on how both texts describe the phone works by authors such as Ananda minor territories located far from the centre Devi, Nathacha Appanah, Bertrand de Robil- of Mauritius and make them benefit from lard, and Amal Sewtohul, weaving together specific strategies of geopoetic and symbolic various perspectives including the memory empowerment. Les Littératures francophones of slavery, literary history, gender issues, and de l’archipel des Comores, ed. Buata B. Malela, geographical displacement. Evelyn Kee Mew, Linda Rasoamanana, and Rémi A. Tchok- ‘Terre/Mer et les enjeux de la territorialisa- hote, Garnier, 428 pp., features more than 20 tion chez Savinien Mérédac et Marcel Cabon’, essays that explore the Francophone literat- NEF, 32.2:85–94, demonstrates how the works ure of the Comoro Islands from historical, cul- of the two Mauritian writers offer two oppos- tural, and comparative perspectives. The works ing representations of natural space and how of authors such as Nassur Attoumani, Soeuf different ethnic groups inhabit or are excluded Elbadawi, Abdou Salam Baco, Salim Hatubou, from this space, while investigating the way and Bakar Koussou are discussed in relation to in which this territorial process influences the questions of national identity, social inclu- the construction of national identity. In the sion, and cultural resistance, and to the con- same issue, Kumari Issur, ‘Géopoétiques/géo- cepts of creolization and Negritude. politiques mauriciennes’ (95–110), probes the The relationship between French and other cultural and ideological heterogeneity of Maur- African languages continues to attract crit- itius by looking at the various strategies of ter- ical attention. Français et langues nationales ritorialisation and spatial identification devel- en Afrique à l’ère postcoloniale, ed. Jean-Paul oped in novels, tales, narratives, myths, and Balga and David Abaïkaye, L’Harmattan, 244 legends, and by demonstrating how these pp., studies the power balance between French forms explore the distant history and geolo- and national languages in Francophone Africa, gic formation of the island, and use the power exploring the multiple ways in which French of the imaginary to reinvent Mauritian post- is influenced and inflected by its contact with colonial identity. On the same topic, Eileen local idioms, and investigating the central Lohka, ‘L’Île Maurice des cartes postales et des question of the language of instruction and

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi: 10.1163/22224297-07901008 154 frenchstudies its consequences on linguistic and cultural and performed in Belgium, focusing on the decolonization in African countries. Ursula different contexts and distinct approaches to Baumgardt, Littératures en langues africaines, the figure of the Congolese anticolonial leader. Karthala, 362 pp., offers a series of studies of Jacob Abell and Holly Collins, ‘From Trauma literatures in African languages from Algeria, to Drama: A Polymorphous Space for Witness- Cameron, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Gabon, ing (to) the Rwandan Genocide in Theatre’, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, and IJFS, 20:273–291, argues that the play ‘Rwanda Tanzania, focusing on the questions of produc- 94’ performs, unlike other artistic projects ded- tion and distribution, as well as the relation- icated to the Rwandan genocide, an act of ship between orality and written forms. Vivan witnessing embedded in the theatrical space, Steemers, ‘La Reconnaissance du récit franco- which allows a multidimensional representa- phone et sub-saharien en édition anglophone tion and a polyphonic discussion of issues of à travers les prix de traduction’, NEF, 32.1:6– identity, authenticity, and responsibility. 26, examines the translation prizes awarded The works of the Negritude poets are in the UK and the US to Francophone sub- investigated from fresh directions. L’Huma- Saharan narratives translated into English, and nité des noirs: l’apport de la Négritude aux assesses their impact on the visibility of literary droits de l’homme, ed. Clément Claude Trobo works and on the questions of gender equality, and Colette Maximin, L’Harmattan, 536 pp., diversity, and recognition of both authors and provides a reassessment of the Negritude translators. movement and its contribution to human It is also worth noting a number of pub- rights, analysing its impact on the repres- lications in the field of African theatre stud- entation and understanding of black iden- ies. Christophe Konkobo, LaPratiqueduthéâtre tity through theoretical arguments and spe- moderne au Burkina Faso, L’Harmattan, 358 cific demands. François Kouabenan-Kossonou, pp., investigates the development of theatre Stylistique et poétique: Pour une lecture impli- in Burkina Faso in both colonial and post- quée de la poésie africaine, L’Harmattan, 264 colonial periods. K. explores the role of reli- pp., is a stylistic investigation of a selection gious, political, and cultural authorities, brings of poetic works by Léopold Sédar Senghor, together individual figures and collective initi- Aimé Césaire, Bottey Zadi Zaourou, and Jean- atives, and assesses theatrical practice in public Baptiste Tati-Loutard, with a focus on the aes- institutions such as youth and cultural centres, thetic, linguistic, and social implications of the and from the perspective of professional devel- authors’ poetic choices. Jean Khalfa, Poetics of opment. N’golo Aboudou Soro, Etudes sur the Antilles: Poetry, History and Philosophy in le théâtre d’A. Césaire, A. Camus et B. Zadi the Writings of Perse, Césaire, Fanon and Glis- Zaourou, L’Harmattan, 154 pp., is a collection sant, Oxford, Lang, xi + 348 pp., sheds light of articles that analyse respectively the repres- on the complexity of negritude movements by entation of natural space in Césaire’s Une tem- focusing on the aesthetics of dispersion and pête, the theme of heroism and the quest for wandering in the poetry and thought of four individual freedom in his plays, the dramatiza- major Francophone writers, including Césaire tion of the tragedy in Camus’s Caligula, and the and Fanon. The volume features a close ana- figure of the resistant in Ivorian writer Bern- lysis of Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays ard Zadi Zaourou’s play Les Sofas. Serge Go- natal and a study of his late poetry around riely, ‘Lumumba et autres fantômes du Congo the question of subjectivity. It also explores sur la scène théâtrale belge’, NEF, 32.1:144– Fanon’s thought by focusing on his psychiatric 155, examines the multiple ways in which the writings, his conception of the body, and his experience of Patrice Lumumba was staged representation of the African continent. A his-