Sony Labou Tansi

Julin E. Everett (Appalachian State University)

Ed. by Nicki Hitchcott, University of Nottingham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.1: Francophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Newman University)

Dates

Born 5 Jul 1947
Died 14 Jun 1995

Places

Born in Congo Democratic Republic (former Zaire)
Active in Congo

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Playwright / Dramatist
Poet
Political writer

Resources

The works of Congolese author Sony Labou Tansi (1947-1995) participate in a tradition of postcolonial African literature from writers such as Williams Sassine, Emmanuel Dongala and Ahmadou Kourouma, and represent a definitive break with the often prescriptive novels of the early postcolonial period, texts that were frequently concerned with the African’s initiative voyage to France. Sony Labou Tansi’s inventive, avant-garde employment of the French language, his infusion of the novelistic form with aspects of the fable and his play with narrative temporality mark a new direction in 20^th century literature. Though relatively young at his death, Sony was an extremely prolific and diverse writer of novels, plays, short …

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2945 words

Citation: Everett, Julin E.. "Sony Labou Tansi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 April 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13166, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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