Calixthe Beyala

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Calixthe Beyala

Calixthe Beyala (* 1961 in Douala ) is a French writer of Cameroonian origin.

resume

Beyala was born the sixth of twelve children. She spent her childhood apart from her parents and grew up in very poor circumstances. She describes herself as a rather solitary character. After attending school in Douala and Bangui , she left the country at the age of 17 and came to France, where she married, graduated from high school and completed a degree in literature and business administration. She lived in Malaga and Corsica for some time , traveled through Europe and Africa, and settled in Paris with her two children.

She speaks her mother tongue Eton (a smaller of the many languages ​​of Cameroon that belongs to the northwest branch of the Bantu languages ), Cameroonian pidgin , French , Spanish and a few other African languages .

subjects

Despite many prizes and awards, Calixthe Beyala is not without controversy. There were repeated allegations of plagiarism; she has been accused of writing pornography , propagating hatred of men and alienating herself from her African roots. These allegations came in particular from male African critics. This may be due, among other things, to the choice of her subjects, because her main focus is on taboo subjects such as the oppression of women in a world dominated by men, the everyday violence perpetrated by men against women, the exploitation of women and children through prostitution , the Practice of female circumcision and the social duty of women to bear children.

In the later novels she questions issues such as motherhood, the parent-child relationship and the values ​​traditionally assigned to the family. Furthermore, she deals with female sexuality and lesbian relationships in her writing , and she pleads for the need for an intercultural female community, for example in her essay Lettre d'une Africaine à ses sœurs occidentales ( letter from an African woman to her western sisters ). In her novel Le petit Prince de Belleville (The Little Prince of Belleville), which is set in the Parisian suburb of Belleville , the theme of migration from Africa to Europe is taken up, while the plot of other novels remains entirely in Africa. Regardless of the background, the subject of suffering and the emancipation of women in a patriarchal society plays the central role. Most of the time, the characters carrying the story are women who are confronted with these issues.

Works

  • C'est le soleil qui m'a brûlée . Paris: Editions Stock, 1987. Novel.
    • German: Whoever loves the sun, it kills , from the French by Anna Schmidt; Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek near Hamburg 1989 ISBN 3-499-12425-4
  • Tu t'appelleras thong . Paris: Stock, 1988. Novel.
  • Seul le diable le savait . Paris: Le Pré aux Clercs, 1990. Novel.
  • Le Petit Prince de Belleville . Paris: Albin Michel, 1992. Novel (German 1995 The little prince from the suburbs ).
  • Maman a un amant . Paris: Albin Michel, 1993. Novel.
  • Assèze l'Africaine . Paris: Albin Michel, 1994. Roman (German 1996 Near, Far Africa ).
  • Lettre d'une Africaine à ses sœurs occidentales . Paris: Spengler, 1995. Essay.
  • Les Honneurs perdus . Paris: Albin Michel, 1996. Roman (German 2016 Beyond Duala ).
  • La petite fille du réverbère . Paris: Albin Michel, 1998. Novel.
  • Amours sauvages . Paris: Albin Michel, 1999. Roman (German wild love affairs ).
  • Lettre d'une Afro-French à ses compatriotes. (Vous avez dit racistes?) . Paris: Mango, 2000. Essay.
  • Comment cuisiner son mari à l'africaine . Paris: Albin Michel, 2000. Novel.
  • Les arbres en parlent encore . Paris: Albin Michel, 2002 novel.
  • Femme nue femme noire . Paris: Albin Michel, 2003. Novel.
  • La Plantation . Paris: Albin Michel, 2005. Novel.
  • L'homme qui m'offrait le ciel . Paris: Albin Michel, 2007. Novel.
  • Le Roman de Pauline . Paris: Albin Michel, 2009.

literature

  • Juliana Makuchi: Calixthe Beyala . In: Pushpa Naidu Parekh & Siga Fatima Jagne (eds.): Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 1998. pp. 75-83.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Beyala, Calixthe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer of Cameroonian origin
DATE OF BIRTH 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Douala , Cameroon