The goal of this course is to explore the process of colonization and the building of the vast French colonial empire through the analysis of historical, literary and visual productions. We will first take into consideration the ideology as well as the legacy of French colonialism in the Caribbean, North Africa and Indochina. We will then analyze the intersections of gender, sexuality and orientalism in the works of Gilles Manceron, Assia Djebar, Albert Camus, Aimé Césaire and Marguerite Duras. Through a series of close-readings, we will seek to explore the ways in which these various authors have built a colonial imaginary.