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    Originaux à lire
    Origins and chronological account of the development of the website
    "Lire les femmes écrivains et les littératures africaines"


    [1970] Beverley Ormerod (from Jamaica) introduces Caribbean and African literatures in the Department of French Studies at the University of Western Australia. [See brief biography in French]

    [1975] Arlette Chemain-Degrange (teaching in Congo) drafts her study "Emancipation féminine et roman africain (published in 1980). In that she wrote : "to date, no [African] woman has ever thought her own condition and shaped it into a literary fiction or poetry" (p.23).

    [1976] Aminata Sow Fall (from Senegal) publishes her novel "Le Revenant" (Dakar: Nouvelles Editions Africaines).

    [1979] Mariama Bâ (from Senegal) publishes "Une si longue lettre" (Dakar: Nouvelles Editions Africaines).

    [1986] Kembe Milolo (studying in Switzerland) publishes her thesis "L'image de la femme chez les romancières de l'Afrique noire francophone" (Fribourg: Editions universitaires). Her book mentions 15 novels by Francophone African women (p.51).

    [1991] The University of Western Australia funds a survey of novels by Francophone African women writers with the view to including female African authors in the French Department's unit on Francophone literature.

    [1992] Beverley Ormerod and Jean-Marie Volet publish a first annotated bibliography of "Francophone women writers from sub-Saharan Africa" in African Literature Association 18-4.

    [1994] An expanded version of the bibliography, including biographical notes on the authors, is published under the title Romancières africaines d'expression française : le sud du Sahara (Paris: l'Harmattan). [See foreword of the book]

    [1995] Jean-Marie Volet (Research Fellow at UWA) envisages loading on the server of UWA Arts Faculty some of the material gathered during his research on Francophone women writers. He designs a first version of the website "Lire les femmes écrivains...". [See initial draft]

    [1996] Permission is granted by the Journal AMINA to include their literary interviews on the site; all the African women writers known to the UWA team are contacted by letter to register their interest in collaborating with the webesite. [See letter]

    [1998] Upgrade of the site by a professional web designer [See archive]; the site is selected to be showcased on EDSITEment (USA); addition of Anglophone and Lusophone authors to the site by Tony Simoes da Silva.

    [2002] Anglophone and Lusophone African women writers are shifted to a separate and independent website managed by Tony Simoes da Silva (Lecturer in Exeter, UK).

    [2004] New logo and new design of the site home page.

    [2005] "Lire les femmes écrivains et les littératures africaines" is Number One on Google for "African women writers". Jean-Marie Volet answers Gabriel YANDJOU's questions regarding the site. [See interviews]

    [2006] Following the migration of the site to the new University server, the old URL https://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/AFLIT/ is replaced by https://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/. The site has been live for ten years, it is widely consulted, lists more than 300 authors and includes in excess of 200 interviews.

    [2007] Inclusion of a sample of women authors from various origins testifying to the interpenetration of cultures in Africa. [Argument]
    [Women writing Africa in colonial times] [19th century writing] [20th century writing]

    [2008] Beginnings of bi-monthly book reviews [Not to be missed] dedicated to novels written by women writers interested in things African.

    [2011] The home page is modified and [Notes de lecture], a new section consisting of book reviews found on the web is added to the site (in French).

    [2013] Desktop publishing and readers' expectations. [Commentary]. Archiving of many pages. Collection of usage statistics for the website (Google Analytics).

    [2014] The home page is modified and [Videos], a new section consisting of a list of videos available on the web is added to the site.

    [2016] AFLIT celebrate 20 years online and a [brief overview of the site's évolution over the years] bears witness to the phenomenal dévelopement of the Internet since the its emergence.


    Editor ([email protected])
    The University of Western Australia/French
    Created: 27 Sept 2006
    Modified: 09 March 2016
    https://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/origineng.html
    Archived: December 2018