L'crivain africain et la littrature-monde: l'ambition de l'universel?

Pour une littrature-monde published jointly by the founders of the literary Festival Etonnants-Voyageurs, Michel Le Bris and Jean Rouaud (2007), is incontrovertibly a first in the history of Francophone literature and represents an entirely legitimate endeavour to question some of the basic contradictions that characterize their reception in metropolitan France, achieved mainly through the prism of categories of thought and knowledge devised within a colonial context. This article is organized in three sections: the first is an attempt to provide insights into theoretical postulations of the notion of littrature-monde, the second explores its subterranean linguistic implications, and the third deals with its mode of functioning and its articulation in literary and artistic practice. In sum, what will be highlighted here are the implications for writers from the periphery, of the emergence of this new literary space which opens up possibilities to liberate them from the constraints and limitations of territoriality and nationality.