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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Of murder and love: peregrinations of the African detective writer |
Author: | Tchumkam, Hervé |
Year: | 2012 |
Periodical: | Research in African Literatures (ISSN 0034-5210) |
Volume: | 43 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 38-49 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | French-speaking Africa |
Subjects: | crime novels French language writers |
About persons: | Mongo Beti (1932-2001) pseud. for Alexandre Biyidi Driss Chraïbi (1926-2007) |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v043/43.4.tchumkam.pdf |
Abstract: | This article discusses the status of the African detective writer in francophone Africa, using examples by Driss Chraïbi (Morocco) and Mongo Beti (Cameroon), two key figures of francophone African literatures. The author offers a reading of 'L'inspecteur Ali' (1991) and 'Trop de soleil tue l'amour' (1999) as novels that signal the shift of both writers from the realist novel to crime fiction. He also scrutinizes the metafictional comments in the novels, that is, passages which deal with the writing of fiction as a whole, and the conventions and potentialities of detective fiction in French-speaking Africa. The author proposes that writing detective fiction does not necessarily lead to the popularity of the writer. Although both Driss Chraïbi and Mongo Beti sought mass appeal in their move to the 'popular' genre of detective fiction, the opposite was the case, as both men found fame only in death. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |