Yale French Studies, Number 140

A diverse, interdisciplinary collection of essays exploring what makes Maryse Cond a writer for our times In 2018, the New Academy selected Guadeloupean writer, scholar, and teacher of literature Maryse Cond as the recipient of the 2018 Alternative Nobel Prize in Literature. This volume of Yale French Studies examines Cond's work and legacy, exploring why a diverse group of journalists, critics, and lay readers selected her as the writer most deserving of the prize. Varied in their themes, forms, and disciplinary groundings, the essays consider how Conds novels, plays, essays, and memoirs have engaged with many of the urgent social, economic, and political issues of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries, often anticipating and catalyzing public debates. Written by scholars from Africa, the Antilles, South America, France, and the United States, the essays consider Conds unique voice and the ways in which her writing speaks to readers all over the world, making her a writer for our times.