Rethinking Marriage in Francophone African and Caribbean Literatures analyzes novels and films that demonstrate how marriage affects Francophone African and Caribbean women in their respective societies. It argues that marriage serves as a catalyst for intense identity formation because it functions as a narrative intersection for a number of overlapping themes on gender and the body, class and economics, religion, interracial and intercultural identity and nation building. Marriage provides a narrative space for commentary on cultural practices presented in the works in question as the foundations of cultural identity.

"Offering a detailed and well organized literary analysis of marriage practices in African and Caribbean literatures, Cecile Accilien provides us with a timely and highly informative work on an understudied topic. She successfully demonstrates that African and Caribbean societies are indeed a complex interaction and intersection of a multitude of factors shaping the dynamic of conjugal relations. This study will be of immense value to scholars and students of African and Caribbean literatures and cultures." - Research in African Literatures

"In Rethinking Marriage, Cecile Accilien makes an important intervention by addressing a significant trope in Francophone African and Caribbean literature and film that is seldom addressed in a complex, comparative framework. She successfully illustrates the powerful role played by patriarchal institutions that regulate and manipulate the marital union. It is also commendable that she informs her arguments with critical voices from Africa and the Caribbean. Accilien must be commended for a valuable study into the world of gender politics, womanhood, and motherhood. Her intervention provokes further interrogation into the complicated contract of the marital union. Accilien has clearly demonstrated that this terrain needs both exposure and exploration.." - H-Caribbean

"In Rethinking Marriage, Cecile Accilien makes an important intervention by addressing a significant trope in Francophone African and Caribbean literature and film that is seldom addressed in a complex, comparative framework. She successfully illustrates the powerful role played by patriarchal institutions that regulate and manipulate the marital union. It is also commendable that she informs her arguments with critical voices from Africa and the Caribbean. Accilien must be commended for a valuable study into the world of gender politics, womanhood, and motherhood. Her intervention provokes further interrogation into the complicated contract of the marital union. Accilien has clearly demonstrated that this terrain needs both exposure and exploration." - H-Caribbean

"I recommend this book for all researchers and students who are interested in marriages, women studies, African/Caribbean cultures, and feminist movement." - INTAMS review: Journal for the Study of Marriage & Spirituality