French 121: Introduction to Francophone Sub-Saharan African fictions

This course explores historical thematic developments in Francophone sub-Saharan African novels from the colonial and postcolonial eras. In 1954, Camara Laye’s novel L’Enfant noir described childhood in late colonial Africa, and distinguished himself from other African writers who adhered to explicitly militant literature. Later, in his novel Les Soleils des Indépendances, Ivorian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma revealed the disillusionment of Africans after political independence and the official end of European colonization. Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ, in Une si longue lettre, advocated for African women, and explored the tension between pre-colonial traditions and practices (such as polygamy) and the new emerging postcolonial society.  Taught in French