French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Mouralis, L'Illusion de l'altérité. Etudes de littérature africaine
Francophone and Oral Literatures

Bernard Mouralis, L'illusion de l'altérité. Etudes de littérature africaine

Paris: Editions Honoré Champion, coll. "Bibliothèque de Littérature Générale et Comparée", 2007.

784 p.

Price: 125EUR

EAN 9782745314833
Publisher's overview:
The approach taken in L'illusion de l'altérité. Etudes de littérature africaine is structured around three main concerns: the texts themselves, the conditions of their enunciation, and the multiform discourse that accompanies them. It also entails a critical inquiry into the nature of the two entities presumed to be "Africa" and "literature," whose existence—assumed by the conventional phrase "African literature"—is, of course, far from self-evident.
Divided into seven sections, the book successively examines: the writer and the crossing of space, the writer's relationship with the West and the colonial past, the connection between independence, power, and violence, the question of the subject, the intertextual dimension of African literary production, the challenges within the fields of education and research, and the forms of solidarity to which writers appeal.
African literary production emerges first and foremost as a vast, multifaceted inquiry unfolding within a framework that does not necessarily align with the boundaries established by criticism and scholarship. It focuses less on defining a hypothetical African identity than on how an individual subject defines a relationship: among peoples, historical eras, languages, literatures, and forms of knowledge.
In this sense, this literature possesses a romanesque dimension.

Bernard Mouralis is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, where he headed the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Text/History Research Center. Previously, he taught at several African universities (Abidjan, Lomé) as well as the University of Lille III. His research focuses on French-language literature of sub-Saharan Africa (Littérature et développement, L'oeuvre de Mongo Beti, V. Y. Mudimbe), Franco-African relations (L'Europe, l'Afrique et la folie, République et colonies), and literary theory (Les contre-littératures).

Bernard Mouralis is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cergy-Pontoise and previously taught at several universities in Africa and France. His extensive research focuses on French-language literature of sub-Saharan Africa, Franco-African relations, and literary theory. Readers interested in African literature and Francophone cultural studies may find this collection of essays relevant to ongoing discussions about the status and interpretation of literary texts.