Colonial Africa and Literature between the Wars



Four important men of letters – André Gide, Albert Londres and Michel Leiris – spend their days in French Africa from 1925 to 1934 and, upon their return, publish the impressions of their travels. Their works change the way the French see the colonial empire in Africa.

Reading the excerpts of those works in addition to two fictional narratives: the African part of Céline’s novel Le voyage au bout de la nuit and the complete novel of the Martinican author René Maran, Batouala, will show us how French literature tackles the question of African colonialism during that period, struck by WWI and the financial crisis. We shall also see how Africa contributed, through “l’art nègre”, to the literary and artistic renewal of the surrealists’ imagination.



Required texts:

- André GIDE, Voyage au Congo, ISBN: 978-2-07-039310-7

- Albert LONDRES, Terre d’ébène. ISBN: 978-2-86959-812-6

- Louis-Ferdinand CÉLINE, Voyage au bout de la nuit. ISBN: 978-2-07-036028-4

- René MARAN, Batouala, ISBN: 978-2-210-75450-8