Francophone Literatures
Instructor:
Description:
This course offers an introduction to literatures and cultures of the Francophone world from the 1950s to the present. In examining fiction from Africa or the Caribbean, it will emphasize the linguistic, aesthetic and discursive specificities as represented by French-speaking authors from former colonies. More importantly, it will determine the ways in which writers from the Francophone world have developed distinctive cultural forms that challenge French canons and colonial thoughts in order to express shifting and complex identities. Among issues addressed are slavery, colonialism, representation, alienation and cultural nationalism which reveal the anxieties of minority groups in a global world.
Required texts:
Maryse Condé, Traversée de la mangrove, Paris, Mercure de France, 1989.
Fatou Diome, Le ventre de l’Atlantique, Paris, Editions Anne Carrière, 2003.
Fouad Laroui, L’insoumise de la porte de Flandre, Paris, Julliard, 2017.
Assignments and evaluation:
Test 1 (15%), Essai 1 (15%), Essai 2 (35%), Test 2 (25%), Overall assessment (10%)
Prerequisite:
FRE 240H1/FRE245H, FRE241H1/FRE246H1.