Spectralite Et Critique De La Laideur: L'engagement Postcolonial Dans La Litterature en Francais De La Nouvelle Generation D'ecrivains Africains

212 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010.This dissertation examines the new generation of Francophone African writers and their negotiation of the theory of "engagement." Thematically, many of these writers deal with the daunting problems faced by Africa and with issues linked to emigration to France. But they also have to work with French publishing houses and their exigencies as they relate to the international book market. The writers themselves aspire to be integrated in the "World Republic of Letters". But such concepts as "World Literature in French" or "World Republic of Letters," while more appealing to the new generation than the old Sartrian theory of "engagement," do not always accommodate a commitment to specific, regional causes. I argue that because many writers may have divided loyalties and conflicting interests, their works of fiction manifest interesting, subtle ways of understanding and practicing a postcolonial "engagement." Theories such as "hauntology" and post-realism can be used to account for some of their writings' main features. To demonstrate this with specific examples, I study individual novels by Simon Njami, Daniel Biyaoula and especially Alain Mabanckou.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD