Written as the recollection of a 110-year-old woman, "Miss Jane", The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is the narrative of African-American history from the Declaration of Emancipation to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Gaines's masterpiece is meant to represent the interpretation of the events of a century through the central character's uneducated but streetwise vision. Carefully built on a historical structure, the book relies on a well-mastered stylistic technique that mixes several literary genres, providing the reader with a deep insight into the African American experience. Inevitably, such central issues as "black pride", human dignity, ethics or the nature of freedom are raised and the reader finds himself actively involved in the re-construction of a black subject whom "history" had relegated in the footnotes of a "Manifest Destiny" written by revisionist ideologues.

Patrick BADONNEL, former chair of the "Agrégation", is full professor of American literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris III), where he teaches seminars on the African American subject and on psychoanalytical criticism. He is the author of several books on American contemporary writers (with Professor C. Maisonnat) and has written extensively on William Styron's work. Also interested in the short story he is the author (with C. Maisonnat) of La Nouvelle Anglo-saxonne. Initiation à une lecture psychanalytique (Hachette Supérieur, 1998).

Cet ouvrage est le fruit de la collaboration entre les éditions Armand Colin et le Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance, établissement public d'enseignement qui dispense des formations de tous niveaux à plus de 350 000 inscrits répartis dans le monde entier.

Cette contribution scientifique d'enseignants chercheurs de l'Université française s'intègre dans les préparations assurées par le CNED aux CAPES et aux agrégations d'anglais qui comprennent aussi des conseils méthodologiques et des entraînements aux épreuves des concours avec correction personnalisée.