Publishing in ELA (ALS – African Literature Studies)
Guidelines for submitting articles to ELA.
How to submit a text for publication in Etudes Littéraires Africaines
- To submit an article to the editorial board, contact the editor:
Céline Gahungu : cgahungu@hotmail.frAlice Chaudemanche : alicechdm@gmail.com
- To submit a book review, contact the editor of the book review section:
Ninon Chavoz* : chavoz@gmail.com
Maëline Le Lay : maeline.lelay@gmail.com
Books for review are to be sent to :
Maëline Le Lay (THALIM)*
Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art*
Galerie Colbert*
2, rue Vivienne*
75002 Paris*
FRANCE*
Manuscripts should be submitted as e-mail attachments saved in RTF format.
Contributors are expected to be members of APELA and subscribers to the journal.
The manuscripts for publication must conform to the following writing conventions
For articles in general:
Manuscripts should be double-spaced and use a 12-point Times New Roman font with foot notes in automatic continuous numbering. Submissions should not exceed 25 to 35.000 signs, including spaces.
A « blind » copy of the article should be sent along with an accompanying cover letter providing the name of the author with affiliation and the title of the article.
Submission guidelines
General dispositions.
Standard font (Times or Arial), 12-point size.
All other forms of writing styles and paragaph setting should be absolutely avoided. Authors are required to pay attention to the following instructions:
. do not use the shift key (except at the beginning of a sentence or a word)
. do not write entire words in upper case letters
. use accented upper case letters
. do not use tabulations (except for occasional tables)
. use non-breaking spaces before all double punctuation signs ( : / ; / ! / ?).
. use the em dash
. use italics only for work titles and foreign words, except if the latter have been francized. In this case do not use italics and make sure that grammatical agreements apply (e.g., une mututsi, ou une femme tutsie). Whenever possible choose the French option : « bantou », « bantoue », « bantous » (instead of bantu)
. always use French opening or closing quotation marks. If there are quotation marks inside a quote, use English quotation marks (e.g., « elle avait du , cette joueuse »).
. any alteration in a quotation should be enclosed within square brackets : […].
. after a colon, if the quotation starts at the beginning of a sentence, the first letter remains capitalized; if the beginning of the quotation is elided, it is indicated by a lower case letter. E.g., Dans son Traité de ponctuation française, Jaques Drillon écrit : « Amusant de voir que le propre de la ponctuation est d’être muette […]. – Dans son Traité de la ponctuation française, Jacques Drillon écrit : « le propre de la ponctuation est d’être muette [ …] ».
. when one or several words are written in italics inside a quotation, always indicate who underlines after the page number. E.g., (p. 37 ; nous soulignons) – (p. 37 ; l’auteur souligne).
. All quotations in a language other than French or English must be translated in the body of the text or in notes.
For book reviews and bibliographical notes:
. Book reviews should not exceed
- 1000-1500 signs (including spaces) for a bibliographical note
- 4000-6000 signs (including spaces) for a standard book review ; til 6000-8000 signs (including spaces) for a a collective work.
. In exceptional cases, when a work is deemed particularly important, the editorial board will give notice to the contributor that he can exceed the prescribed length as soon as he has been assigned the task of writing the review. If the required norms have been exceeded, the editorial board reserves the right to reject the review, or to ask the author to provide a shorter version or to carry out all the necessary cuts.
. As regards reviews of collective works, a review is not the systematic and linear listing of the different sections but a synthesis dealing with the major issues they analyse. For journals containing articles dealing with different topics, the reviews should bear only on articles having a literary relevance, and among them, on those which are the most interesting.
. do not use foot notes.
. all quotations from the reviewed works should be followed by page references.
Submissions for the « dossiers » and « varias ».
. The length of articles submitted for the « dossiers » is indicated to the contributors by the coordinator. The « varias » (articles outside the « dossier ») should not exceed 25 to 35.000 signs (save for exceptions in agreement with the editorial board).
. Note numbers should be superscript arabic numerals and placed immediately after the word referred to or the material quoted. The sign of punctuation ending the sentence (or part of the sentence) is placed AFTER the note number. E.g., Jules Dupont1 adorait les citations suivantes : « la fourmi n’est pas prêteuse »2, ou encore « après la pluie le beau temps »3.
. Do not use a bibliography at the end of articles (except if special permission is granted).
. Bibliographical references must feature in automatically processed footnotes and must be precise, complete and conform to the following presentation:
- Dibwe Dia Mwembu (Donatien), Faire de l’histoire orale dans une ville africaine. La méthode de Jan Vansina appliquée à Lubumbashi (R-D Congo). Préface de Jan Vansina. Paris : L’Harmattan, coll. Mémoires, lieux de savoir – Archives congolaises, 2008, 264 p.
- Rancière (Jacques), « Le philologue et le conteur. Littérature, communauté, démocratie », dans Construction d’espaces démocratiques en Afrique subsaharienne. Enjeux littéraires, enjeux politiques. Sous la direction de Maria-Benedita Basto. Paris : Éditions de l’EHESS-CEAN, 2007, 265 p. ; pp. 55-66.
- Dibwe D.M. (D.), Faire de l’histoire orale…, op. cit., p. 113).
- Rancière (J.), « Le philologue et le conteur… », cit., p. 61.
Do not use idem, ibidem, etc.
When there are numerous references to a single work or to a limited number of works (e.g., in the literary analysis of one or several novels), indicate the full bibliographical details when it is referred to for the first time then use an abbreviated form in the body of the text. References to L’Aventure ambiguë, for instance, will be noted as (AA ; p. 32).
References to electronic publications will use the following model: the author’s name, the full title of the document within quotation marks, the title of the complete work if applicable, in italics, the date or publication if available, the full http address within angle brackets, the date of visit. For example: Tousignant (Nathalie), « Imaginaires coloniaux dans la Belgique “nouvelle” (1999-2004) : enjeux mémoriels », 32 p., dans Actes du colloque international Expériences et mémoire: partager en français la diversité du monde. Université de Bucarest, 12-16 septembre 2006, [éd. B. Jewsiewicki], non paginé, consultable sur le site de la Chaire de recherche du Canada en Histoire comparée de la mémoire (Université Laval, Québec), <http://www.celat.ulaval.ca/histoire.memoire/colloques/colloque_bucarest_2006.htm>, mis en ligne en septembre 2007, consulté le 30.10.2008.
Names of persons within the body of the text are always written in lower case letters (and not in upper case letters). First names are always fully spelt when mentioned in the text
Names of authors in bibliographical references: given the particular context of African literatures where family names can take on different non-abrahamic forms (i.e. surname, first name), the main name will always be identified with a graphic index: preferably by using lower block letters. The « postname »follows the main name; it is abbreviated in the following examples just as the first name is abbreviated in abrahamic formulations. Thus, for example: Sony (Marcel), then Sony (M.), for the early writings of : Sony Labou Tansi, then Sony L.T. in subsequent references. Or again : Ngandu Nkashama (Pius), then Ngandu N. (P.).
Headings : do not use numbers or combinations of numbers such as : 1., I., 1°, 1.1 etc. They will be deleted by the editorial board. Verbal headings should suffice. Use only two subdivisions, one in bold letters, the other in italics.
Quotations : all prose quotations running more than three typed lines should be set off in a separate paragraph without quotation marks.
Graphic design: the final wording of titles, headings and abstracts of articles fall to the editorial board.
Please strictly comply with the specified formats regarding the number of signs and the timelines set by the editorial board.
Authoritative works of reference on the French language:
Drillon (Jacques), Traité de la ponctuation française. Paris : Gallimard, coll. Tel n°177, 1991, 472 p.
Grevisse (Maurice) & Goosse (André), Le Bon Usage. Grammaire française. Bruxelles : De Boeck/Duculot, 2007, 14e éd., 1600 p., bibl.
Le Grand Robert.