Batouala (African Writers Series)
Batouala is set in French Equatorial Africa and follows the daily life of the Banda chief Batouala while exposing the tensions inside the community and the hypocrisy of colonial rule. Its vivid nature writing and political force helped make it a lasting Prix Goncourt winner.
Work Information
A close, forceful portrait of a community unsettled by colonial power, seen through the eyes of its chief.
Through the perspective of the Banda chief Batouala, the novel traces the shifting order of the community, the pull of desire, and the pressure of colonial power. Its saturated nature writing turns political accusation into something immediate and felt.
Review Summaries
-
Some readers praise its early anticolonial perspective and vivid rendering of everyday African life, while others find it difficult without a strong sense of the historical context.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Heinemann
- Published
- 1988-01-06
- Pages
- 154 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.97 x 0.89 x 21.59 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780435901356
- ISBN-10
- 9780435901356
- Price
- 9173 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Classics
French African prose can be given a beginning with the publication in 1921 of the novel Batouala . . . its sensitive portrayal of African life, with its evocation of the natural environment, could not but make a profound impression upon its African readers and offered a vivid example of what an African novel in French could be. -Abiola Irele
Rene Maran was the first black writer to win the renowned French literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. He was born in Martinique and spent many years of his early childhood in Africa. After receiving his formal education in France, he joined the French colonial service and spent over twenty years in Black Africa. Batouala was born out of this experience, and was first published in French in 1921. This translation is, however, based upon the franker 1938 edition. He wrote seven other books including Le Livre de la Brousse (1934) and an autobiographical novel Un Homme pareil aux autres. He died in 1960.
Reviews
-
Excellent story detailing the life of an African chief living ...
Excellent story detailing the life of an African chief living in Central Africa under the French colonial system. Maran was a genius and conveys everything that you think that can be conveyed about the people via the chief and his tragic death. The symbolism is perfect and the style is captivating. Americans should be exposed to this piece as Hemingway was. Ha THE ELEMENTS OF A zHITCHCOCK FILM.
-
Le roman inaugural de la Négritude
Ce roman fondateur de l'idée de négritude, reprise par la suite par Césaire et Senghor touche particulièrement juste. L'usage de la langue ou alternent des périodes aux accents africains et des phrases à l'hypercorrection provocatrice, fait de Batoula une oeuvre hypesensuelle, la vue l'ouïe, le toucher, l'odorat et le goût son convoqués par le truchement d'une écriture foisonnante. Plus encore que le témoignage sur le colonialisme - d'autant plus implaquable, qu'il est volontairement exempt de toute sentence, de tout jugement moral ou politique - c'est la glorification du sensible qui confère à cette oeuvre majeure sa dimension foncièrement révolutionnaire.
-
A la question que vous me posez: "Batouala" était-il conforme à vos attentes ?
oui !
-
Livre totalement en anglais
Le livre est totalement en anglais. Je ne peu pas le lire
Related Literary Awards
- Prix Goncourt Edition 19 (1921) ・Winner