African Novels and the Question of Orality

EILEEN JULIEN, Associate Professor of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at Boston University, is a past President of the African Literature Association (1990–91). She writes primarily on sub-Saharan literature of French expression.

• PrefacePart I: Of Origins and Orality1. The Search of Continuity and Authenticity2. An Impoverished ParadigmPart II: The Arbitrariness and Specificity of Form3. The Importance of GenreEpic4. A Dubious Heroism: Epic Modalities in L'Estrange Destin de Wangrin5. The Democratization of Epic: Les Bouts de bois de DieuInitiation Story6. Authority Reconstructed: Le Regard du roi7. An Ambiguous Quest: La Carte d'identiteFable8. "The Emporer's New Clothes": The Lens of Fable in La Vie et demie9. "The Mouth That Did Not Eat Itself": From Object of Representation to Medium in Devil on the Cross10. Toward New Readings of the NovelNotesWorks CitedIndex

"This is an extremely well written and carefully argued book that is quite persuasive. It should be essential reading for every scholar in African literature.O NResearch in African Literatures O ... a bold challenge and a tool for the student as well as for the scholar in African literature, and also a veritable tour de force in comparative literature.O NWorld Literature Today OEileen Julien has produced an astute, well-researched, and lucidly written text on issues of orality in African literature.O NInternational Journal of African Historical Studies O ... a joy to read because of the precious clarity, infectious liveliness and concision with which Julien writes.O NAfrican Studies Review The search for oral origins in African literature is a quest for African authenticity. In a critique and revision of the conceptual category of orality as it has been understood and used by scholars, Julien stresses the transformation of narrative genres as an index of sociopolitical relations and authorial vision.