Defining Africa through literature – the literary as a vector of Africanity in the discourse of the World Congresses of Black Writers and Artists (Paris, 1956 and Rome, 1959) Cover Image

Définir l’Afrique par la littérature – le littéraire comme vecteur de l’africanité dans le discours des Congrès des écrivains et artistes noirs (Paris, 1956 et Rome, 1959)
Defining Africa through literature – the literary as a vector of Africanity in the discourse of the World Congresses of Black Writers and Artists (Paris, 1956 and Rome, 1959)

Author(s): Michał Obszyński
Subject(s): Cultural history, Other Language Literature, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: Panafricanism; World Congresses of Black Writers and Artists; Black literature; Négritude; Afropolitanism; Afrotopia;

Summary/Abstract: In our paper we show how Black writers (those of Africa and those of the Black diaspora in Europe and America) have contributed to the intellectual work centered on the idea of Africanity. We explain to what extent literature, as one of the domains of culture, reflects different visions of Africa, as formulated in the discourse of the World Congresses of Black Writers and Artists (Paris, 1956 and Rome, 1959). With reference to the official texts presented or elaborated during these events, we expose in which way literature is involved in the decolonial remapping of the geocultural place of Africa and in the remodeling of the postcolonial literary geography while pointing out the precursory or heralding character of certain postulates whose echoes will be heard during the festivals of negro and pan-African art of the 1960s and whose relevance is also confirmed nowadays.

  • Issue Year: 50/2023
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 83-95
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: French