Abstracts
Résumé
Quels critères employer pour définir ce qui constitue la spécificité littéraire d'un pays en particulier? La critique africaine s'en est plutôt tenue à retracer les conditions d'émergence d'une littérature locale. De plus, le concept de littérature nationale pose problème en Afrique. La littérature camerounaise, au-delà d'une spécificité certaine, est exemplaire de plusieurs régions du continent. On y perçoit deux pôles de légitimation : l'un interne, l'autre externe. Le second reste privilégié, assurant la reconnaissance la plus souhaitée par les écrivains. Sur le plan interne, l'État a eu tendance à s'emparer de plus en plus du pouvoir de légitimation, en recourant à ses propres instances : ministère de la Culture, presse officielle, système d'enseignement, gênant la mise en place d'institutions littéraires autonomes.
Abstract
What criteria should one use to define the specificity of a particular country's literature? African criticism has tended in the main to deal with the conditions underlying the emergence of local literature. The concept of a national literature, moreover, is fraught with difficulty in Africa. Apart from its obvious specificity, the plight of literature in Cameroons can be taken as typical of that of various regions of the Continent. Cameroonian literature lays claim to two types of legitimacy: the one internal, the other external. Because it is more likely to bring recognition, the latter continues to be favoured by writers. At the same time, the State has increasingly appropriated to itself the powers of legitimating literature by resorting to institutions of its own, such as the Ministry of Culture, the official press, and the education system. The effect of its action has been to impede the emergence of autonomous literary institutions.