Maryse Condé, the “Grande Dame” of Francophone literature, dies at 90
Maryse Condé, a writer from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe whose explorations of race, gender and colonialism in the Francophone world made her a favorite for the Nobel Prize in literature, died Tuesday in Apt, a city in the south of France. She was 90 years old.Her death, in hospital, was confirmed by her husband, Richard Philcox, who translated many of her works into English.Condé's work, which began with her first novel, “Hérémakhonon” (1976), came at a crucial moment, when the notion of French literature, centered on the canonical works of French writers, began to give way to the multifaceted notion of literature francophone. literature, drawing from all parts of the French-speaking world.Having lived in Guadeloupe, France, West Africa and the United States, Condé has ...