ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- CONTENTS -- Introduction -- 1 Discourses Surrounding French Texts "about" Africa and Africans: The Ubiquity of "Les Sciences Coloniales" -- 2 Critics of the African Diaspora and Their Contribution to Debates in Paris -- 3 Negritude and Literary Criticism -- 4 Nationalisms and Literary Criticism: The Nature of Literary "Engagement" -- 5 Seminal Studies: Historiography and Criticism -- 6 The Wider Debate -- Conclusion -- Index.