By looking at engag e literature from the recent past, when thefrancophone African writer was implicitly seen as imparted with a mission, to thepresent, when such authors usually aspire to be acknowledged primarily for theirwork as writers, "Contemporary Francophone African Writers and theBurden of Commitment" addresses the currrent processes ofcanonization in contemporary francophone African literature. Odile Cazenave andPatricia C l rier argue that aesthetic as well as political issues are now at theforefront of debates about the African literary canon, as writers and criticsincreasingly acknowledge the ideology of form. Working across genres but focusing onthe novel, the authors take up the question of renewed forms of commitment in thisliterature. Their selected writers range from Mongo Beti, Ousmane Semb ne, andAminata Sow Fall to Boubacar Boris Diop, V ronique Tadjo, Alain Mabanckou, andL onora Miano, among others.