What’s in a name?

Abstract

In March 2007, a manifesto entitled ‘Pour une “littérature-monde” en français’, appeared in Le Monde. Signed by forty-four writers, the piece announces a ‘révolution copernicienne’ against the hierarchized distinction between French and Francophone literature which continues to prevail. Since its publication, academics have debated the validity of the proposed terminology and posited a number of alternatives. The result, I argue in this manifesto which serves as a response, is of having once again taken the floor from the writers themselves. I instead advocate for listening to their own voices in (self-)defining literatures of French expression.

Keywords

• manifesto
• Francophonie
• French literature
• francosphères
• academia
• postcolonial