Williams Sassine (1944 in

Kankan Kankan ( Mandingo: Kánkàn; N’ko: ߞߊ߲ߞߊ߲߫) is the largest city in Guinea in land area, and the third largest in population, with a population of 1 980 130 people as of 2020. The city is located in eastern Guinea about east of the ...

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

– February 9, 1997 in

Conakry Conakry (; ; sus, Kɔnakiri; N’ko: ߞߐߣߊߞߙߌ߫, Fula: ''Konaakiri'' 𞤑𞤮𞤲𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤭𞤪𞤭) is the capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its p ...

, Guinea) was a

n novelist who wrote in French. His father was Lebanese

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and his mother was a Guinean of

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

heritage. Sassine was an expatriate African writer in France after leaving Guinea when it received independence under

Sékou Touré Sekou, also spelled Sékou or Seku, is a given name from the Fula language. It is equivalent to the Arabic ''Sheikh''. People with this name include: Given name * Seku Amadu (1776–1845), also known as Sékou Amadou or Sheikh Amadu, founder of th ...

. As a

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

he wrote of marginalized characters, but he became more optimistic on Touré's death. His 1979 novel ''Le jeune homme de sable'' has been regarded as among the best 20th-century African novels.http://www.nigeriavillagesquare1.com/BOOKS/africabest-fiction.html Few of his works have been translated into English, but ''Wirriyamu'' was published in an English translation in 1980. As an

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

he remained critical of Touré as chief editor for the

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

paper '' Le Lynx''. Some of Sassine's works have been translated into English, Spanish and Russian.

Selected works

* ''Saint Monsieur Baly'' (1971) * ''Wirriyamu'' (1976) (in 1980, an English language translation by Clive Wake and John Reed was published) * ''Le jeune homme de sable'' (1979) * ''L'Alphabête'' (1982) * ''Le Zéhéros n'est pas n'importe qui'' (1985) * ''L'Afrique en Morceaux'' (1994) * ''Mémoire d'une peau'' (1998)

Critical studies of Sassine's fictional work

* Asaah, Augustine, "L'inscription du corps dans quatre romans postcoloniaux d'Afrique". ''Présence Francophone'' 66 (2006), 57–80. * Baker, Charlotte, ''Enduring Negativity: Representations of Albinism in the novels of Didier Destremau, Patrick Grainville and Williams Sassine'' (Peter Lang, 2011). * Baker, Charlotte, ''Saint Monsieur Baly.'' Glasgow Introductory Guides to French Literature 56 (Glasgow French and German Publications, 2010). * Baker, Charlotte, "'My Sole Reality, My Only Refuge, My Unique Prison': The Body of the Black African Albino in Williams Sassine's Mémoire d'une peau" in Lili Hernandez and Sabine Krajewski (eds), ''Crossing Cultural Boundaries'' (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009). * Chevrier, Jacques, ''Williams Sassine: écrivain de la marginalité'' (Toronto: Editions du Gref, 1995). * Chevrier, Jacques, "Malades et infirmes dans l'œuvre romanesque de Williams Sassine" in Jacqueline Bardolph (ed.), ''Littérature et maladie dans la littérature africaine'' (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1994), pp. 173–187. * Chevrier, Jacques, "La Marginalité, figure du postcolonialisme dans l'œuvre romanesque de Williams Sassine" in Jean Bessière and Jean-Marc Moura (eds), ''Littératures postcoloniales et francophonie'' (Paris: Champion, 1999), 131–139. * Chevrier, Jacques, "De la solitude à la solidarité dans l'œuvre romanesque de Williams Sassine", ''Notre Librairie'', 128 (1996), 126–132. * Chevrier, Jacques, "Le Thème de l'exclusion et de la marginalité dans l'œuvre de Williams Sassine" in Régis Antoine (ed.), ''Carrefour de cultures'' (Tübingen, 1993), 431–438. * Chevrier, Jacques, "Williams Sassine: Des mathématiques à la littérature", ''Notre Librairie'', 88–89 (1987), 110–118. * Chevrier, Jacques and Richard Bjornson (1992), "Williams Sassine", ''Research in African Literatures'', 23.4, pp. 133–136. * Coussy, Denise, and Jacques Chevrier, "L'Errance chez Williams Sassine et V.S. Naipaul", ''Notre Librairie'', 155–156 (2004), 68–75. * De Saivre, Denise "Humour et communication: L'exemple de Williams Sassine". ''

Présence Africaine ''Présence Africaine'' is a pan-African quarterly cultural, political, and literary magazine, published in Paris, France, and founded by Alioune Diop in 1947. In 1949, ''Présence Africaine'' expanded to include a publishing house and a bookstore ...

'' 147 (1988), 68–79. * Giguet, Frédéric, "La construction tragique de l'identité dans l'œuvre romanesque de Williams Sassine" in Dominique Laporte (ed.), ''L'autre en mémoire'', Presses Université Laval, 2006. Unpaginated. * Lebon, Cécile, "Williams Sassine Mémoire d'une peau: Review". ''Notre Librairie'' 136 (1998). * Ngandu Nkashama, Pius, ''Ecrire à l'infinitif : la déraison de l'écriture dans les romans de Williams Sassine'' (Paris: Harmattan, 2006). * Ngandu Nkashama, Pius, "Il était une fois, Saint Monsieur Baly...". ''Présence Africaine'' 155 (1997). * Sow, Alioune, "Forbidden Bodies: Relocation and Empowerment in Williams Sassine's novels", '' Matatu: Journal for African Culture and Society'', 29 (2005), 207–220. * Wendeler, Catherine, "The embodiment of wrath in two postcolonial prophecies: La vie et demie by Sony Labou Tansi and Mémoire d'une peau by Williams Sassine", ''Imperium'' 2 (2001). Unpaginated.

References

External links

Afrocentrism and Afro-Pessimism section of this article

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sassine Guinean novelists Male novelists Guinean male writers African newspaper editors 1944 births 1997 deaths People from Kankan Guinean writers in French 20th-century novelists 20th-century male writers