Paradoxes Surrounding the Reception of Francophone African Writers Sami Tchak or the Writer’s Color

Résumé

In Les Frontières racialisées de la littérature française. Contrôle au faciès et stratégies de passage (2017), S. Burnautzki reminds us that Bourdieu's theory of fields is not solely rooted in a commercial perspective and a rejection of mass culture, but is also permeated by an unacknowledged racial and colonial bias that shapes the conditions of reception. Francophone writers from sub-Saharan Africa, whose production, distribution, and reception depend almost entirely on Paris, find themselves in an ambivalent situation of appreciation and acceptance both in France and in Africa, their continent of origin. On the one hand, the global literary establishment, from which they are honored with prestigious literary prizes, does not (necessarily) grant their publications added value, and on the other hand, in Africa, they remain less widely read due to several factors, including the controversies that their fiction can sometimes provoke.

This study focuses specifically on the reflections of Sami Tchak, a Togolese author living in France since 1986, and winner of several literary prizes in both Europe and Africa. Following repeated questions he receives during meetings between writers and readers, he wrote an autobiography entitled La Couleur de l’écrivain, in which he addresses the challenges of the reception of so-called “Afrosporic” writers, of whom he is a leading figure. To better understand the aforementioned work, we will first examine the question of identity and race as obstacles to the symbolic recognition of Francophone African writers within the French literary field. Then, through the concept of “literature of the rich/literature of the poor”, we will explore how the trajectory of African writers based in Europe gives rise to a double paradox in terms of their reception.