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Itsembabwoko ‘À La Française’? Rwanda, Fiction And The Franco-African Imaginary, Madelaine Hron

English and Film Studies Faculty Publications

This article explores the literary representation of the genocide in Rwanda, and by extension, that of the Franco-African imaginary. Since the horrific events in 1994, “Rwanda” has become a discursive epiphenomenon, be it in global human rights, African or francophone contexts. Literary works about itsembabwoko, mostly published in France, now represent both a varied and a substantial corpus in Francophone literature. Problematically, however, France played a critical, if not insidious, role in the 1994 Tutsi genocide. This paper therefore examines to what extent Francophone literature about Rwanda is shaped by French politics. Specifically, it contrasts Franco-African texts produced as part …