Gangrene (book)

Home \| Books By Year \| Books from 1968
Gangrene (book) Buy Gangrene (book) now from Amazon First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article 'Gangrene' is a 1968 novel written by Flemish writer and former Assistant Direct Commissioner in the Belgian Congo Jef Geeraerts. Also referred to as 'Black Venus', this is the first of four books belonging to Geeraerts 'Gangrene' cycle."Gangrene- Black Venus: The Great African Novel from Flanders." Dutch Foundation for Literature. Standaard/ Manteau. Web. . The narrator bears the authors name, and the book is widely considered to be a fictionalized yet largely autobiographical account of Geeraerts experiences in the Belgian Congo towards the end of the Belgian colonial era, leading towards the Congos independence in 1960.Stynen, Ludo. "World Literature In Review: Dutch." World Literature Today 70.4 (1996): 972. Academic Search Complete. Web. Style Although Gangrene takes the form of a novel, the style is deliberately journalistic in nature: They call me an author, Geeraerts once said, but primarily I am a journalist. My books deal with situations I know through and through, about regions where I lived long enough to get a good sense of them, about things I experienced personally.Davis, J. Madison. "Crime Writing Among The Flemings." World Literature Today 79.3/4 (2005): 56. MasterFILE Premier. Web. His writings have also been described as being therapeutic.Hermans, Jacques. "Geeraerts, Bon Petit Diable." La Libre 25 July 2002. LaLibre.be. Web. Plot summary Working as a commissioner in the Belgian Congo, narrator Jef Geeraerts depicts his day-to-day interactions with Congolese people and fellow colonists, his various journeys beyond his colonial station, and finally, the disintegration of the colony itself at the advent of Congolese independence. Known for its graphic sexual content, Gangrene narrates numerous affairs with local women, ranging from his second wife Mbala, several young sex workers, a heavily pregnant woman, a pair of sisters, and a variety of other characters and groups of people.Geeraerts, Jef. Gangrene. New York: Viking, 1975. Print. Gangrene also depicts numerous instances of violent conflict between the Belgian Congos military forces and local armed militias. Towards the end of the novel, Geeraerts character abandons his post to flee the country, as the independence movement drove the colony into increasing chaos.Geeraerts, Jef. Gangrene. New York: Viking, 1975. Print. Reception Both accolades and controversy followed Gangrenes publication at both the national and public level: First the Belgian government awarded the novel the national prose prize, then that self-same government seized the book in order to investigate its lascivious character, responding to accusations of racism and pornography."Gangrene- Black Venus: The Great African Novel from Flanders." Dutch Foundation for Literature. Standaard/ Manteau. Web. . Reviews of the work consistently describe the book as controversial and explicit.Vanacker, Sabine. "Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders)." Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms. London: Routledge, 2001. Credo Reference. Web. The book is also widely viewed as a critique of Belgian colonization.A, A. "The Public Prosecutor." Flanders Today 18 Sept. 2013. Flanders State of the Art. In fact, Gangrene was accused of allegedly giving such a harsh account of the violent 1959 military expedition in the Kasai area that Belgian army authorities publicly refuted its contents.Hendriks, Thomas. "Queer Complicity In The Belgian Congo: Autobiography And Racial Fetishism In Jef Geeraerts's (Post)Colonial Novels." Research In African Literatures 45.1 (2014): 63-84. Academic Search Complete. Web. References Category:1968 novels Category:Literature controversies Category:Obscenity controversies in literature Category:Race-related controversies in literature Category:Novels set in Belgian Congo Category:Novels set in the 1950s Category:Novels set in the 1960s Category:Controversies in Belgium
Buy Gangrene (book) now from Amazon <-- Return to books from 1968 This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1005247884.