The Story Archive

Black Docker

Ousmane Sembène · 1956 CE · Novel · West African · Contemporary

Diaw Falla loads ships on the Marseille docks by day and writes a novel about a slave revolt by night, sending the manuscript to a Paris woman who agrees to place it with a publisher. The book appears under her name and takes a prize, and the rest of the story reaches the reader from a courtroom where Diaw is already the accused. Sembene's first novel, written out of his own years as a docker and union man in Marseille.

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Attributes

Genre
Crime / NoirPolitical
Theme
Race & IdentityClass & InequalityArt & CreationJustice & Revenge
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanCreatorScapegoat
Plot structure
Frame NarrativeTrialConfession
Symbol / motif
The Book / ManuscriptThe CityThe Ship / Boat
Conflict
vs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
RealistIronicNoir
Culture / tradition
West African

Closest analogues