Focuses upon the relationship between oral and written cultures in Francophone Africa and/or the Caribbean: lyric and narrative poetry, drama and novels; the presence of oral tradition in written forms, narrative techniques borrowed from storytelling tradition, the definition of traditional metaphors and imagery; idealization of lost worlds; the conflict of traditional culture and modernism; the search for political identity and independence.

In this seminar, we will read a number of literary texts by authors with links to North Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and France. In one way or another, all of these texts self-consciously engage with French colonial history and its many afterlives. Some present themselves more or less explicitly as historical narratives; others experiment with poetic language to tap into aspects of historical experience that would otherwise be silenced; still others draw history forward into an imagined future. Many of them involve characters who are driven to pursue historical inquiry, and to work with archives both official and unofficial, by the desire to understand the structuring effects of past violence in their present lives. Throughout our discussions, we will consider the specificity of each text while remaining open to insights made possible through reading comparatively. In other words, our goal will not be to synthesize a unified theory of “francophone historical fiction,” but rather to analyze individual texts in light of common textual strategies, formal elements, and practices of representation. Specific details about readings will be announced at our first meeting, but in addition to selected secondary material, authors considered are likely to include Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar, Didier Daeninckx, Ahmadou Kourouma, David Diop, Aimé Césaire, Maryse Condé, Anna Moï, Linda Lê, and Doan Bui. Please note that reading knowledge of French is required.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.