Francophone Women Writers of Africa and the Caribbean

"Linking Africa and the Caribbean, orality to writing, Larrier presents an important study of women’s empowerment in contemporary francophone literature."--Mildred Mortimer, University of Colorado

"A ‘page turner’, well-conceptualized scholarship that surely will have a long--very long--life in the field. A wonderful resource . . . that scholars, students, and teachers will find useful."--Janis A. Mayes, Syracuse University

Examining narratives from a wide variety of countries and traditions in francophone Africa and the Caribbean, Renée Larrier argues that women writers reappropriate their specific oral tradition by creating woman-centered/woman-narrated texts. Female characters telling their own stories subvert stereotypes found in literature and popular culture.

Larrier discusses the inscription of women’s voices on sites as varied as pot lids, wall paintings, and cloth before focusing on prose works from Cameroon, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Mali, Martinique, and Senegal. In so doing, she reconnects the authors of Africa and the diaspora who articulate women’s perspectives and empower their communities.

 A significant comparative study, Francophone Women Writers of Africa and the Caribbean marks a major contribution to an exciting field of inquiry.

Renée Larrier is associate professor of French at Rutgers University and coeditor, with E. Anthony Hurley and Joseph McLaren, of Migrating Words and Worlds: Pan-Africanism Updated.