Ecrivains Noirs d'afrique et des Antilles: (2 American University Studies Series 18: African Literature)

This book is written in French. This anthology contains biographies and critical analyses of the works of African and Caribbean Black writers from the twentieth century. It offers several excerpts in prose and poetry to be used as basic reading material for classes at the elementary, intermediate, or advanced level of College French. Questions for oral practice and written exercises accompany each excerpt. The anthology also contains a general bibliography of each author's works, a selective bibliography of critical studies, and a French/English vocabulary.

About the Author :
The Author: Ronald Gerard Giguere received his Ph.D. in French from the University of Connecticut. He has been a member of the Modern Languages Department at Connecticut College, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and Phillips Academy. He has also taught at the University of Rouen in France. He is currently working as a bilingual editor for Merriam-Webster Publishing, Inc. Dr. Giguere has published extensively in French and American journals, and has written a book on Yves Bonnefoy, Le Concept de la realite dans la poesie d'Yves Bonnefoy.

Review :
Voici une excellente introduction a la litterature noire par la voie royale de ses meilleurs ecrivains. Il faut feliciter Dr. Giguere pour sa selection: il a retenu les auteurs les plus representatifs. Ses commentaires aideront le lecteur extra africain a penetrer dans un univers complexe... Il faut le remercier aussi de nous presenter l'extraordinaire autobiographie de Wole Soyinka: je la prefere a toute autre pour l'humour, l'emotion et la qualite du style. (Lilyan Kesteloot, Professeur de litterature africaine, Universite de Dakar, Senegal) Dr. Giguere has made an excellent choice from among the foremost black writers of this century: Mongo Beti, Aime Cesaire, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Wole Soyinka, to name but a few... The concise analyses along with the pedagogical apparatus that accompany each selection will prove an invaluable tool for the teaching of African and Caribbean literature and culture. I recommend highly that 'Ecrivains noirs' be incorporated as a text in the general curriculum of French and Francophone studies. (Maurice Cagnon, French and Francophone Literatures, Montclair State College) Ecrivains noirs is an anthology that would be most useful for instructors who, like me, have no knowledge of black writers in French and would like to include this type of literature in introductory and intermediate courses. It proposes to the instructor and students tools which would help in the understanding of such a literature (choice of text, introductions, questions). I look forward to using Ecrivains noirs in some of my courses. (N. K. Murstein, Professor of French, Connecticut College) This much needed anthology illustrates the global nature of the study of French. No longer can we say that French is solely a European language; as these selections make clear, it is part of contemporary African and West Indian cultures. The readings introduce the student to writers who were among the first to use European languages to express non-Western cultural perspectives. (Eloise A. Briere, State University of New York at Albany)