Africa in the Works of Blaise Cendrars: the Controversy over Little Black Stories for Little White Children Cover Image

Afryka w twórczości Blaise’a Cendrarsa: kontrowersje wokół Murzyńskich bajeczek dla dzieci białych ludzi
Africa in the Works of Blaise Cendrars: the Controversy over Little Black Stories for Little White Children

Author(s): Ewa Kalinowska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, French Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: African tales; folk tales; literature for children; political correctness

Summary/Abstract: The article concers a discussion about Little Black Stories for Little White Children (Petits contes nègres pour les enfants des blancs) (1928) renewed in 2018 by the publisher Gallimard Jeunesse. Cendrars was an artist who influenced the French art movements of the 1920s and ‘30s. He was also fascinated with Black Africa. His collection of African child folk tales, Little Black Stories for Little White Children, was ground-breaking in its sympathetic and non-racist respect for African folk culture. In spite of Cendrars’ attitude, expressed in personal life and in his works, Little Black Stories was accused of racism and negrophobia when a new edittion ocurred in 2018. This paper proposes an afterthought about these accusations.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 15
  • Page Range: 181-192
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Polish