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no t e s introduction 1. The dates of publication of the books mentioned in this book correspond to the dates of the original editions, whereas the dates mentioned in the bibliography correspond to the editions that are readily available. 2. During a conversation with one of the authors, Ken Harrow rightfully pointed out that the usefulness of Eagleton’s argument is limited by the divide it constructs between the West and Africa, thus failing to recognize that many of the cultural dominants existing in the one sphere are to be found in the other. This remark seems particularly applicable to diasporic African writers. 3. Dramatizing the effects of globalization on Africa, Abdourrahmane Sissako’s film, Bamako (2006), centers on a mock trial of the West and its models for development and progress in which Traoré herself impersonates an impassioned writer called to the bar to voice her concerns about Mali’s increasing poverty. 4. In this book, we use the capitalized form of the word “Engagement” when referring to its French/Sartrian context. In French and italicized, Litt érature engagée is similarly linked to that historical logic. In its noncapitalized form, “engagement” is understood as synonymous with literary commitment , which is the term most prevalent as the book unfolds. 5. Among others: Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, Edward Said, Michael Moore, Bill Moyers, Bernard Henri Lévy, Alain Finkelkraut, Wole Soyinka, Traoré, and Arundhati Roy. 6. The translation of this quotation corresponds to its English edition. 7. See PDF version prepared by Jean-Marie Tremblay (August 28, 2008, Cegep: Saguenay, Quebec, Canada). The original version of Althusser’s article appeared in La Pensée, no. 151 (June 1970). A successive version appeared in Positions (1964–1975): 67–125. Paris: Les Editions Sociales, 1976. 8. “Mongo Beti,” Alexandre Biyidi’s pseudonym, is consistently men- Notes to Introduction and Chapter 1 188 tioned in its entirety since it loses its meaning when “Beti” is used as a family name—“Mongo Beti” meaning “son of the land” in Ewondo. 9. For example, the Papon trial and torture in Algeria during the war of independence. 10. Although this book gives an idea of the contemporary production of francophone African authors, it could not possibly focus on each author’s work in detail. Choices were made to highlight our arguments with intelligibility in mind. 11. The same held true for Faïza Guène’s Kiffe kiffe demain (2004; Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, 2006), which appeared in translation almost immediately. 12. Available at http://www.univ-paris8.fr/agenda/science2_html. php?id_event=344. The Prix Edouard Glissant was created in 2002 at the Université Paris 8 with funding from the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and RFO. It distinguishes works that value métissage, linguistic and cultural interactions , and the sharing of identities and knowledges. Nimrod was its 2008 recipient. 1. enduring commitments 1. There are numerous, and more recent, instances of writers speaking out on the question of political commitment in literature. Lamenting the declining publication of novels in the vein of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Barbara Kingsolver, the American author best known for her 1998 novel The Bean Trees, created the Bellwether prize in 2000 “in support of a literature of social change” to reward books of conscience, social responsibility, and literary merit. See “Defining a Literature of Social Change” online at http://www.bellwetherprize.org/change.html. 2. Midiohouan, L’idéologie, 214. 3. “Littérature engagée can be viewed from two different angles: either it is considered as a “moment” in the history of French literature, that is to say as a trend or a doctrine (1945 Sartre and Les temps modernes) . . . before it gives way to other ideas or practices of literary writing (Nouveau Roman , Structuralism, New Criticism . . . ), or politically committed literature is thought of as a transhistorical literary phenomenon, recurring in other norms and forms throughout the history of literature” (Denis, 17–18). 4. Rancière defines the concept as follows: “I call the distribution of the sensible the system of self-evident facts of sense of perception that simultaneously disclose the existence of something in common and the delimitations that define the respective parts and positions within it” (12). 5. In that respect, Midiohouan shares in the thinking of other African intellectuals, such as Cheikh Anta Diop and Boubacar Boris Diop, who have [3...

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