Le (néo)colonialisme littéraire: Quatre romans africains face à l’institution littéraire parisienne (1950-1970) by Vivan Steemers (review)

Given the paucity of works treating francophone African literature and its relationship with French and international translation markets, Vivan Steemers’s Le (néo)colonialisme littéraire: Quatre romans africains face à l’institution littéraire parisienne (1950-1970) presents a long-awaited critical exploration of francophone literary marketing in Paris during the mid-twentieth century. This work’s methodological rigor, underwritten by lucid prose and rich historicizing engagements with secondary literature, illuminates the role that publishing houses and journalistic critiques had in the Metro-centric reception and readership of four francophone sub-Saharan novels appearing between 1950 and 1970: L’Enfant noir (Camara Laye, 1953); Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba (Mongo Beti, 1956); Les Soleils des indépendances (Ahmadou Kourouma, 1968); and Le Devoir de violence (Yambo Ouologuem, 1968). These years are particularly important in Steemers’s study; as they represent different reception statuses of these four works, punctuated by shifting economic, sociopolitical, journalistic, and anti-colonialist forces over the course of the twenty years. Theoretical frameworks informed by Pierre Bourdieu’s work on cultural production and book reception, by Gérard Genette’s hermeneutics on paratext, and by Hans Robert Jauss’s study on textual reception and production offer sustained explorations of these four primary texts in a larger context of postcolonial discourse.

Steemers places import on the Eurocentric definition of discours africaniste as a launching point to her analysis, which is itself divided into two sections. The first section details the non-favorable reception of Beti’s Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba, given the work’s heavy anticolonial themes and subsequent censorship in Cameroun. Beti’s work stands in clear distinction to Laye’s L’Enfant noir, a novel that idyllically portrays Africa and was favorably received by Parisian publishers. Citing editors of the publishing house responsible for L’Enfant noir’s positive regard, Steemers dovetails on critic Adele King’s highly recognized work on Laye to affirm that several members of the French Union, as well as two Belgian journalists, play a significant role in the novel’s reception. The political motivation behind these journalists or conseillers littéraires involves tailoring Laye’s work specifically to an Occidental public to promote an idealized image of a colonized Africa. Financially supported by the French government, Laye sees a noteworthy journalistic coverage of her published work, which is subsequently crowned the Prix Charles Veillon.

The second section of Steemers’s work treats Les Soleils des indépendances and Le Devoir de violence, as well as the ever-changing status of the French-African publishing landscape, in relation to African neocolonial politics during the 1960s. Kourouma’s Les Soleils des indépendances, which projects a saturnine image of post-independent Africa, receives no offers for publication beyond that of the University of Montreal. The novel is later published in France with Seuil, receiving a semi-favorable journalistic review. As Steemers suggests, Les Soleils des indépendances is able to see the light of day thanks to a peripheral francophone nation’s efforts to publicize this linguistically and stylistically innovative African text. Building on problematics posed by Christopher Miller, the analysis then considers Ouologuem’s Le Devoir de violence and its connections with authenticity, ideological critiques, and known accusations of plagiarism.

Steemers’s treatment of these four francophone African works’ editorial and journalistic receptions is of deft quality. Having made excellent use of difficult to acquire archived material, Steemers’s ability to assess the complex sociopolitical and economic climate in which each foundational work appears underscores the methodological erudition of Le (néo)colonialisme littéraire. This work’s argumentation clearly acknowledges the extent to which Metro-centric receptivity in publishing contexts is largely predicated on diegetic representations of (anti) coloniality, of ideology, and on synchronic changes within the Parisian publishing infrastructure.

The notion central to Steemers’s analysis — literary neocolonialism — remains an aspect that could have...