AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS : CONFIGURING CHANGE AT THE INTERFACE OF POLITICS AND FICTION

Author(s)

  • Claire H. Griffiths

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18352/relief.651

Keywords:

Francophone Africa, Politics, development, gender, fiction

Abstract

This article explores the space between politics and literature occupied by feminist writers in Francophone Africa. In the social realist novel, these writers have established an arena in which to engage in the politics of gender, modernity and change in Francophone sub‐Saharan Africa and articulate a culturally‐located discourse of development. The reception of this literary genre in its locality helps reposition the discourse of gender and development within the region, offering a culturally‐embedded voice in the gender and development debate that has been marginalised in the framing of the international development agenda for Africa over the past half century.

Author Biography

  • Claire H. Griffiths
    Claire H Griffiths is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Chester in the UK, formerly senior research fellow in francophone African Studies at the WISE Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull. Her research explores political discourses of development and change in the former French colonies with particular reference to Africa and the Caribbean. Her current book project focuses on methods employed by francophone African and Caribbean visual artists to contest globalised discourses of development in the francophone developing areas.

Downloads

Published

2011-11-09

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2011): African women writers

Section

Articles - thematic dossier

License

All articles published in RELIEF appear in Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). Under this licence, authors retain ownership of the copyright of their article, but they allow its unrestricted use, provided it is properly cited.

How to Cite

“AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS : CONFIGURING CHANGE AT THE INTERFACE OF POLITICS AND FICTION” (2011) RELIEF - REVUE ÉLECTRONIQUE DE LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE, 5(1), pp. 1–18. doi:10.18352/relief.651.