Voyageurs francais sur le continent africain

The focuses of this research is to examine in a new light, the question of commitment in literature as applied to French writers Rene Maran and Andre Gide. The works the two writers published depicting the plight of African forced laborers under colonial rule in Central Africa in the thirties, provoked enough scandal to be debated at the National Assembly. Both writers chose literary forms---a novel and a travel diary---to disseminate their message and make their combat known to a large public. In my dissertation I see Maran's works and Gide's Travel to the Congo (1927) as continuing the tradition of committed literature in France, a tradition that had existed long before it was theorized by Sartre. My goal is to evaluate the ability of literature (and its limits) to impact public opinion and provoke social change.;This study also shows that otherness was a social construct that used ethnicity as its basis in the colonial world. It analyses the principles that maintained the colonial system in various parts of Africa and dwells on the complexity of Maran's situation and the ambiguities that plagued his life and works: a Caribbean writer raised in France, and a Black man working as a colonial employee in Africa.;Both Maran and Gide chose to speak for people whose creed, lifestyle and beliefs differ from theirs. My contention is that being a spokesperson for a group of people one does not belong to, has specific challenges such as the risk of condescendence, misrepresentation and caricature. The question of misrepresentation is still an acute one since current writers still feel the need to represent and speak for marginalized groups. In French and Francophone literature, Paul Smail's Life Kills Me (a book that tells of the experiences of two young Frenchmen of Maghrebi descent) is a recent example.