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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | The troubling popularity of West African romance novels |
| Author: | Moudileno, Lydie |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Periodical: | Research in African Literatures |
| Volume: | 39 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Pages: | 120-132 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | West Africa |
| Subjects: | popular literature novels French language |
| External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v039/39.4.moudileno.pdf |
| Abstract: | This essay acknowledges the success, in West Africa, of a collection of romance novels written in French. Launched in the 1990s by the publishing house Nouvelles Éditions Africaines (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) as the Adoras collection, the series has grown to become one of the most spectacular success stories in African (francophone) editorial history. The essay argues that the popularity of the Adoras novels not only as a popular genre but also as fiction in French can be perceived as troubling in a context where France is still seen as the sole foyer of francophone creativity, where 'higher' written genres are still struggling with legitimacy issues, and where critics typically declare the absence of a francophone African readership. Following Bernth Lindfors, the author argues that 'popular fiction' can be a misleading term when applied to a body of writing from Africa. While in Western societies, 'popular literature' overlaps 'literature for the masses', this equivalence does not hold in Africa, where the masses either cannot read the same language or else cannot read at all. The idea of a popular literature has to be redefined to account for the fact that, even though a book or collection may enjoy tremendous commercial success, its 'popularity' remains altogether relative. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |
