Transatlantic reciprocity, reception in dutch-speaking areas, reliance, and deliance around Batouala

Abstract

In this article, I start by recalling the friendship between Alain Leroy Locke and René Maran in order to better understand the subtitle – “véridique histoire nègre” – of his Goncourt Prize winning first novel. Translated into Dutch, Batouala had two translators, a Dutch and a Belgian, with a slightly different impact. I also show how Maran has been impacted by the author of “Heart of Darkness”, while also André Gide (who knew Maran well) also pays tribute to Conrad. Finally, I show how Maran has been rehabilitated in Belgium. First, he was admitted to the “Académie de langue et culture françaises”, and second, the fiction by George Simenon echoes several of both Maran’s and Conrad’s powerful fictions on the “coeur des ténèbres”.