Mongo Beti is the pseudonym of one Alexandre Biyidi, a novelist from the ex-French Cameroun, who wrote the body of his work in the 1950s, before his country gained its independence. His four novels, Ville Cruelle, Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba, Mission Terminee, and Le Roi Miracule together constitute a detailed portrait of life in the Cameroun under colonial rule. In this thesis I have attempted to set forth as clearly as possible Beti's opinions on the actions and philosophies of colonial administrator and Christian missionary alike, and on the effects which these have had upon his fellow-Camerounians. To analyse the justice of his opinions, I have referred to contemporary and more recent criticism of these two facets of Europe's "African adventure." It is my contention that, though mordant in his satire of the Christian religion in Africa, though angrily critical of colonialism's "civilising mission", Beti is never less than honest in his evaluation. Equally honest are his portrayals of his fellow-Africans, for he does not succumb to the temptation to present them as more noble or long-suffering, or as, in any way, other than they are. I have commented upon the intrinsic worth of the novels themselves, and have attempted, briefly, to suggest the position and importance of Beti's brand of social realism in the history of the African novel, indicating my reasons for believing that his work still has relevance today. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Mongo Beti (1932-2001), romancier, pamphletaire et journaliste, a abondamment enchaine un discours continu sur certaines questions socio-politiques portant sur la vie au Cameroun. II nous a fait un legs durable de son oeuvre romanesque qui s'etend de l'ere coloniale jusqu'au debut du XXIe siecle, et depeint de facon dynamique revolution socio-historique de son pays natal. Le renouvellement de son style romanesque dans la realisation de Trop de soleil tue I'amour (1999) et de Branle-bas en noir et blanc (2000), ses deux derniers romans, merite un examen des modifications narratives et de leurs effets par rapport a la forme narrative de ses romans precedents. Bien que nous demontrions une evolution romanesque possible en comparant quelques-uns de ses romans contestataires, a savoir Ville cruelle (1954), Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba (1956) et Mission terminee (1957), avec Trop de soleil tue I'amour et Branlebas en noir et blanc, nous decouvrirons egalement, du point de vue narratologique, que Beti a conserve dans une certaine mesure les fonctions premieres accordees a ses narrateurs. Afin de degager des changements identifiables, cette etude reposera sur l'approche narratologique edifiee par Gerard Genette dans Figures III (1972). Nous examinerons en particulier la perceptibilite de la presence du narrateur betien, ses rapports avec le recit et avec l'histoire et la facon dont certains aspects de Pinstance narrative se modifient d'un recit a 1'autre. Nous releverons ainsi de notre corpus des eloignements et des rapprochements entre les narrateurs autodiegetique, homodiegetique et heterodiegetique betiens, quant a leur situation narrative et leurs fonctions. Selon l'approche adoptee, nous verrons que Beti manipule les outils de la narration pour transmettre, sous forme d'un discours romanesque impressionnant, ses nombreuses preoccupations des conditions socio-politiques (neo)coloniales contemporaines. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate