Studia Litterarum Studia Litterarum 2500-4247 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2023-8-1-126-143 Research Article Articles Specific Features of Forming French-Language Literatures of Sub-Saharan Africa as the Regional Typological Commonness Lyakhovskaya Nina D. red@studlit.ru March 25, 2023 2023 April 05, 2022 The article is dedicated to basic methodological principles of studying Frenchlanguage literatures in Western and Central Africa. In 60s–70s of the 20th century, foreign Africanists-literature scholars, such as Jacques Chevrièr, and domestic ones, I.D. Nikiforova in particular, studied such literatures as a typological commonness with basic peculiar features or characteristics. The first one is the French language with the tendency for the indigenisation and creation of a “hybrid message.” The second one is the general idea-driven and artistic paradigm: the anticolonial orientation, traditional Africa presentation, protection of the authentic culture, folklore, spiritual values. As distinct from foreign Africanists, both Nikiforova and other Russian scientists emphasised the national specific character of regional literatures, having substantiated two more features that are essential: the accelerated development and parallelism or “compression of styles,” alignment of various art movements within a single temporal space. By the late 20th century, the vector of African studies moved towards the analysis of certain literatures in such typological commonness, thus enabling to determine their national distinctness to a deeper and more precise extent. typological commonness national specific character “hybrid message ” accelerated development J. Chevrier I.D. Nikiforova parallelism of styles hybridisation of styles Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 1. 1 Gachev, G.D. Uskorennoe razvitie literatury [Accelerated Development of Literature]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1964. 297 p. (In Russ.) 2. 2 Ivasheva, V.V. Literatura stran Zapadnoi Afriki. Prosa (Senegal, Kamerun, Bereg Slonovoi Kosti, Nigeriia, S’erra-Leone) [Literature of the Countries of West Africa. Prose (Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone)]. Moscow, Vysshaia shkola Publ., 1967. 256 p. (In Russ.) 3. 3 Liakhovskaia, N.D. Literatura Kot-d’Ivuar. Dramaturgia i romanistika [Literature in Ivory Coast. Dramaturgy and Novels]. Moscow, Nasledie Publ., 2019. 231 p. (In Russ.) 4. 4 Nikiforova, I.D. Afrikanskii roman [The African Novel]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1977. 237 p. (In Russ.) 5. 5 Nikiforova, I.D. Istoriia romannykh form v literaturakh Afriki [The History of Novelistic Forms in the Literatures of Africa]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2010. 760 p. (In Russ.) 6. 6 Nikiforova, I.D. O natsional’noi spetsifike zapadno-afrikanskikh literatur [The National Specific Character of Literatures in Western Africa]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1970. 134 p. (In Russ.) 7. 7 Potekhina, G.I. Ocherki sovremennoi literatury Zapadnoi Afriki [Essays on Contemporary West African Literature]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1968. 211 p. (In Russ.) 8. 8 Chevrier, Jacques. Litteratures francophones d’Afrique noire. Paris, Les écritures de Sud, 2006. 209 p. (In French) 9. 9 Durichin, Dionys et collectif. Communautes interliteraires specifiques. Bratislava, [S. n.], 1992. 204 p. (In French) 10. 10 Gérard, Albert. Etudes de Litteratures africaines francophones. Dakar-Abidjan, Nouvelles éditions africaines, 1977. 176 p. (In French) 11. 11 Kestelloot, Lilyan. Les ecrivains noirs de langue francaise: Naissance d’une litterature. Bruxelles, Univer libre, 1963. 343 p. (In French) 12. 12 Regards russes sur les litteratures francophones. Paris, L’Harmattan, 1997. 294 p. (In French) 13. 13 Research in African Literatures, vol. 18, no. 4, 1987. 385 p. (In French)