Literature of Francophone Africa and its Diaspora in Bibliographic Indexes: An Evaluation

Extract

In the era of information explosion, published material is no longer the apanage of specialized journals. Researchers in all fields — and African literature is no exception — must gather data that are scattered in eclectic publications. For instance, three journals that do not specialize in literature recently published the following articles: Teisseyre, Ch. ‘Interrogation sur la littérature africaine d'expression francaise'. Revue Francaise d'Histoire du Livre 48 (1979): 805-811; Yaek'Olingo, Wufele. ‘Brefs regards sur l'image de l'autorité post-coloniale dans le roman africain de langue francaise’. Genève-Afrique 19 (1) (1981): 103-122; Menga, Guy. ‘Expérience d'un dramaturge: l'essor du théâtre moderne au Congo’. Ethnopsychologie 35 (2-3) (April-Sept. 1980): 81-86. In this study, several interdisciplinary indexes which cover journals pertaining to francophone African literature (including but not limited to, monographs, collective works, dissertations, and proceedings of conferences) are analyzed and compared in terms of their coverage, relevancy and currency.