Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Senghor, Léopold Sédar - Dorothy S. Blair （essay date 1984）

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Dorothy S. Blair （essay date 1984）

SOURCE: “The Negritude Generation” and “After Independence, the First Twenty Years: New Themes, New Names,” in Senegalese Literature: A Critical History, Twayne, 1984, pp. 45-141.

[In the following excerpt, Blair provides an overview of Senghor's literary and political career, particularly his role as a leading figure of the negritude movement and Senegalese literature.]

The literary pioneers we discussed in the preceding chapter were, without exception, the docile and grateful products of the French educational system, their “civilizing mission” and assimilation policy as applied to Senegal. Not one of these writers questioned the superiority of Western values; none showed any symptom of disquiet over a possible loss of cultural identity. But neither had any one of them been exposed to the cosmopolitan stimuli and intellectual hurly-burly of Paris student life. At the bottom of the...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Newsweek （review date 27 July 1964）
   2. Gwendolyn Brooks （review date 13 September 1964）
   3. Robert W. July （review date 25 October 1964）
   4. O. R. Dathorne （essay date 1974）
   5. Lilyan Kesteloot （essay date 1974）
   6. Frederick Ivor Case （essay date 1975）
   7. Janis L. Pallister （essay date April 1980）
   8. Dorothy S. Blair （essay date 1984）
   9. Janet G. Vaillant （essay date 1990）
   10. Roger Shattuck and Samba Ka （review date 20 December 1990）
   11. K. Anthony Appiah （review date 5 July 1992）
   12. Isaac I. Elimimian （essay date 1994）
   13. Koffi Anyinefa （essay date Summer 1996）
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. African Literature