Studies in Francophone Literature: The Series "Lettres du Sud" (review)

When Présence Africaine was created in 1947, first as a journal, soon after as a publishing house, it was the only publisher of literature from Africa and the Caribbean, as well as of literary studies related to this literature. In its early days, the publishing house focused on creative writing. Only in the sixties would they begin publishing works of criticism on African and Caribbean literature, but without making it their major concern. Since then, the body of literature in French produced in Africa and the Caribbean has grown, and so have the works of criticism. If today well-established French publishing houses are also involved in the publication of writers from outside the Hexagon, still few, if any, have engaged in publishing literary criticism on these writers' works.

In this respect, Karthala has filled a void remarkably with the creation of the series "Etudes Littéraires," replaced in year 2000 by the series entitled "Lettres du Sud," under the direction of Henry Tourneux. Founded in May 1980, Editions Karthala counts 25 years of existence and has emergedas one of the major publishers in France, specializing in African and Caribbean topics. Its publications cover a range of fields of knowledge in Social Sciences and the Humanities, including literary criticism, politics, economy, international relations, sociology, history, religion, and anthropology, as well as health, women, education, military, environment, and agriculture. Although Africa and the Caribbean seem to be the major areas represented, Karthala also seeks to be open to the rest of the world, through the representation of different geographical areas. Its publications thus include works and topics related to the African continent, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Baltic, and the Golf countries.

The growing but still well controlled number of publications in the series "Lettres du Sud" reflects the risinginterest in francophone¹ literatures, and mostly, perhaps, their development and vitality, confirmed by their introduction and consolidated presence within the academic curricula, especially in the USA, which provides most of the customers for "Lettres du Sud" publications, through acquisitions by university libraries or individual scholars involved in the teaching of francophone literatures. The presence of a series director could be seen as a positive move, insofar as it gives an orientation and an identity to the series.

"Lettres du Sud" comprises two collections: one for essays and the other for fiction and short stories. This latter series has so far produced just a few works, and none of the authors has yet reached a national or international visibility. One might wonder whether the relative slowness of this section of the series is related to the existence of other publishers, more specialized or with a longer tradition in the publication of creative writings. The essays section, on the other hand, stands on solid ground and displays vitality: each year it brings out new and excellent works of criticism in francophone literature. Karthala has created for itself an excellent reputation for the quality of its books—both in terms of the material presentation of the books and their scholarly quality. These qualities have attracted to the series authors who are, for the most part, established university professors and literary critics who have specialized in francophone literatures that they teach at different universities in Africa, the USA, the Caribbean, France, or the Middle East.

Among the volumes published in the essays section of the series "Lettres du Sud," some are monographs—self-authored volumes, such as the ones on Edouard Glissant, Mouloud Feraoun, Nadine Gordimer, Daniel Maximin, Rachid Boudjedra, Ahmadou Kourouma or volumes consisting of contributions by different authors and centered around a single writer: Habib Tengour with Habib Tengour, ou, l'ancre et la vague; Maryse Condé with Penser la créolité; and Andrée Chedid with Aux frontières des deux genres: en hommage à Andrée Chedid. Still other volumes, collective or single-authored, go beyond geographical frontiers and deal with questions pertaining to the general francophone world outside the Hexagon: La culture française vue d'ici et...