Francolectures 1

The reader accustomed to following our investigations will hardly find in this basket of circumstantial essays the essence of our research in Hispanic philology, but rather the reflection of other critical reflexes that underlie the other academic hat we wear: that of passionate reader of "local things", seasonal decipherer of works belonging to authors of several generations, written under the dictation of a language that constitutes, without doubt, the most living, vibrant and least contested vestige of the French presence in Africa. The first volume in an ongoing trilogy, Francolectures 1 is, if we may use the neologism, a "deca-regard" of Cameroon's French-language literature, at its most foundational, unifying and youthful. This is why the ten authors gathered here (including nine poets and one novelist), born before and after decolonization, have an indisputable link with France, either from the point of view of the language of adoption or writing, or academically or ideologically, or even according to the reception of their works in France, particularly in terms of literary consecration.