KShs 100
Description
FOREWORD
This module of “African Literature: the novel and the short story”, was designed from works dealing with French-language African literature, and educational documents relating to novels and short stories. Divided into two parts –
unequal in size – it intends to make a pedagogical contribution to knowledge of any potential user in the matter.
Thus, in the Introduction, we attempt to outline a range of factors that have contributed to the birth of the novel and the short story in Africa.
In the first part, the first chapter puts an emphasis on the generation of authors considered by critics as the precursors of the African novel. The second chapter is devoted to the awakening of black consciences during the period which preceded the acquisition of African independence. The third chapter turns its camera on the second generation novelists who, disappointed by these independences, express their fed up at the same time as they denounce the abuses of all kinds in which the new masters of the scene wallow African politics.
In the fourth chapter, the attention is focused on some lines of force of the production of novels over the past twenty years. It gives a panoramic view of the modern African novel while showing the gap that exists between the generation contemporary and the two that precede it. Finally, we look into the second part, on the short story which, considered as a minor genre, has not yet truly acquired its credentials alongside the novel and the theatre.
Our purpose will therefore consist of a chronological presentation of the novel and the African news, in order to facilitate its user, to follow the progress of the authors over the years. Furthermore, it should be noted that each period studied is punctuated by a short quotation that justifies the position of the author concerned. Furthermore, at the end of each chapter, there are two excerpts of texts to invite our reader to read at if applicable, one or more books of which we propose the list