V45.0145Approaches to Francophone Literature V45.0145 Instructor -
Professor Jean Michael Dash The course examines the literature from a network of French-speaking countries which together form a Francophone space. It not only addresses the colonial past but the anti-colonial and postcolonial situations in which French colonialism is replaced by more complex relationships and ideologies. One of the most difficult issues that confronts the postcolonial francophone world is the question of cultural homogeneity and social integration within national structures. This course focuses on the problematic area of language and the role of the writer in elaborating a Post-colonial national identity. The problematizing of language, nation and writing will be examined in both a theoretical way and in the prose fiction of Edouard Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau of Martinique, Jacques Roumain of Haiti, Ahmadou Kourouma of the Ivory Coast and Assia Djebar of Algeria. Syllabus Prescribed Texts Assia Djebar, La
disparition de la langue francaise Edouard Glissant,
La Lézarde Patrick
Chamoiseau, Chronique des sept misères Ahmadou Kourouma,
Les soleils des indépendances. Jacques Roumain, Gouverneurs
de la rosée Schedule of Classes The first part of the course will be devoted to a history of French colonialism, using Robert Aldrich, Greater France. Areas treat would include Overseas Empires, Images and Uses of the colonies, Resistance and Decolonization. Part two will explore excerpts from theoretical writing on
the subject of language and nation eg. Langue et décolonisation (Memmi, Fanon); Problématique de l’authenticité
(Senghor, Césaire) ; Opacité et créolisation (Glissant, Chamoiseau) ;
Parole des femmes (Conde, Djebar) The third section will deal with the prescribed texts under the following headings as Glissant et la
poétique du paysage; Chamoiseau et l’oralité ; Kourouma et le détour de la
langue ; Roumain et les langues de la nation ; Djebar et la
parole de l’ombre. Selected Bibliography Aldrich and Connell, France’s
Overseas Frontier Bernabe, Confiant, Chamoiseau, Eloge de la créolité, Gallimard 1989 Bongie, Chris, Stanford, 1998 Colonial Discourse”,
diacritics, fall 1993, pp.69-90 Césaire, Aime, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, Paris, 1939 Césaire, Suzanne, « Malaise d’une civilisation », Tropiques,
no.5, 1942,pp.43-49 Chamoiseau, Patrick, Antan d’enfance, Paris, 1990 Ecrire
en pays domine, Paris 1997 Conde, Maryse, Habiter ce pays, la Guadeloupe, Chemins critiques, vol.1,
no.3, 1989, La
parole des femmes, Harmattan, 1979 Dash, J.M. The
Other Charlottesville, 1998 Dunwoodie, Peter Writing
French Fanon, Frantz, Peau noire, masques blancs, Paris 1952 Forsdick and Murphy
ed. Postcolonial Francophone Studies, Gallagher, Mary,
Soundings in French Gauvin, Lise, L’écrivain francais a la croisée des langues, Katharla 1997 Glissant, Edouard, Le discours antillais, Paris 1981 Poétique
de la relation, Paris, 1990 Traite
de Tout-Monde, Paris, 1997 Hazael-Massieux, M. Les
Créoles : L’indispensable survie, Entente 1999 Hurbon, Laennec, Culture et Dictature en Haïti, Paris, Le rêve
d’habiter, Chemins Critiques, vol.1, no.3, 1989, pp.91-107Kaye, J. and Zoubir, A. The Ambiguous
Compromise : Literature Language and National Identity in Lévi-Strauss, Claude, Tristes Tropiques, Paris, 1955 Ménil, René, Psychanalyse de l’histoire, Tracées, Paris 1981 Miller, Chris, Nationalists
and Nomads Chicago 1998 Mortimer, M. Journeys
through the French African Novel. Heinemann, 1990 Mudimbe, V.Y. The
Surreptitious Speech, Presence Africaine and the Politics of Otherness Suk, Jeannie, Postcolonial
Paradoxes in French Rosenblum, M. Mission to Civilize, The Sartre, J-P. “Orphee noir” (PUF, 1948 Wa Thiongo, N. Decolonizing
the African Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, Heinemann, 1986 Webb, Barbara, Myth
and History in Caribbean Fiction, Weekly Schedule Week 1 Conquest and Empire. The two periods of French expansion (Chapters 1 and 2 of Aldrich, Greater Week 2 Colonization, Assimilation and Exoticism (Chapters 6 and 7 of Greater France and Burton, “Maman-France Doudou,” diacritics 1993) Week 3 Decolonization and its
aftermath(Chapter 8 Aldrich Greater France, Dominic Thomas
Black Week4 Language and Repression (Chapter 1,
Fanon’s Peau noir masques blancs, Memmi Portrait d’un colonise) Week 5 Negritude Extract from
Cesaire’s « Cahier d’un retour au pays natal » and Senghor’s
« Quand les lamantins vont boire à la source » Week 6 Creolization Extracts from
Edouard Glissant, Le discours antillais and Bernabe, Chamoiseau,
Confiant, L’éloge de la créolité. Week 7 The language of women writers. Extracts from
Maryse Conde, La parole des femmes and Assia Djebar, Ces voix qui
m’assiègent. Week 8 Revision and Written Examination Week 9 Language
and post-national Jacques Roumain Gouverneurs
de la rosee Week 10 Language and Antillean Landscape Edouard Glissant, La Lezarde Week 11 Creole and Identity Politics Patrick
Chamoiseau, Chronique des sept misères Week 12 Africanization of French Ahmadou Kourouma, Les soleils des indépendances. Week 13 French and Islam Assia Djebar, La
disparition de la langue francaise. |
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