La figure du père dans les littératures francophones ed. by Ching Selao (review)

This volume focuses on the complex dynamics of father figures in and of the Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Overall, this book provides convincing arguments to demonstrate the importance of rereading family relationships within the sociopolitical context of different regions and eras, thus moving away from feminist-inspired readings of mother-daughter relationships and marginalized women in patriarchal societies on the one hand, or idealized mother/ grandmother figures in Africa and the Caribbean, on the other hand. Drawing on explored territory of literary traditions in Quebec, Ching Selao compares the presence of negative images of fatherhood after the Quiet Revolution to African postcolonial societies that created similar experiences of failure. Her thoughtful introduction truly sets the tone for a shift towards currently understudied variations of father figures outside Quebec, more specifically, in the "pays dits du Sud" (10). Since the volume focuses on authors of the French-speaking world rather than Metropolitan France, the analysis of Pierre Guyotat's works seems less clear, despite the fact that he thematically fits into this study. However, the eight well-documented contributions establish original connections that can best be described through what Yolaine Parisot calls "réfractions (verticales de la filiation, horizontale de la fratrie)" (106). As such, readers will be surprised by the depth of findings that go well beyond Assia Djebar's or Danny Laferrière's ties to their biological fathers, within the context of Algeria and Haiti. As a matter of fact, each chapter insists on the importance of the sociopolitical context such as the Muslim tradition and political exile as contributing or limiting factors to fatherhood. This is particularly relevant in the case of the Franco-Algerian Harki father, as Évelyne Ledoux-Beaugrand and Anne Martine Parent's chapter indicates. Apart from biological connections, recurring references are the spiritual fathers of Caribbean as well as Algerian literature, Aimé Césaire and Kateb Yacine. Particular attention should be given to the contributions of Ching Selao, Yolaine Parisot, and Christiane Ndiaye, who skillfully untangle the ambivalences of symbolic father figures and inspirational texts in the cases of Maryse Condé, Danny Laferrière, and the contemporary Haitian novel. Attentive readers will also appreciate the level of detail in referencing literary genre (popular fiction, autobiography, or "la sphère dite lettrée" 108), anxiety of influence (Créolité and the myth of the return to Africa), and footnotes. The volume is well-balanced and alternates between complex comparative analysis of multiple and individual authors. This book will be an important addition to university libraries as a helpful starting point for new studies of the complexity of family relationships in other parts of the French-speaking world, including the Indian Ocean, South-East Asia, and the South Pacific.