Contemporary Francophone African Writers and the Burden of Commitment: Modern Language Initiative

By looking at engagee literature from the recent past, when the francophone African writer was implicitly seen as imparted with a mission, to the present, when such authors usually aspire to be acknowledged primarily for their work as writers, "Contemporary Francophone African Writers and the Burden of Commitment" addresses the currrent processes of canonization in contemporary francophone African literature. Odile Cazenave and Patricia Celerier argue that aesthetic as well as political issues are now at the forefront of debates about the African literary canon, as writers and critics increasingly acknowledge the ideology of form. Working across genres but focusing on the novel, the authors take up the question of renewed forms of commitment in this literature. Their selected writers range from Mongo Beti, Ousmane Sembene, and Aminata Sow Fall to Boubacar Boris Diop, Veronique Tadjo, Alain Mabanckou, and Leonora Miano, among others.