Texts/Films:

See Description

Course Description:

In this course, we will read a number of texts produced by writers with ties to the Caribbean, West Africa, and North Africa, as well as to France.  Each of these texts stages a journey of some kind—one-way or round trip, real or imagined, in or out of various colonial, postcolonial, and metropolitan locations.  As we discuss these narratives of displacement, we will pay particular attention to the dynamics of power that structure the movement of colonial and postcolonial subjects, as well as the coming into contact of different cultures, languages, religions, and histories.

Readings will include: Aimé Césaire, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal; Ousmane Socé, Mirages de Paris; Cheik Hamidou Kane, L’aventure ambigüe; Ousmane Sembène, “La Noire de…”; Leïla Sebbar, Shérazade; Gisèle Pineau, L’exil selon Julia; Alain Mabanckou, Bleu blanc rouge.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

Satisfies one “Culture” or one “Elective” course requirement in the French Major.   Satisfies one course requirement in the French minor.  Satisfies College of Letters and Science breadth requirement in Arts and Literature or International Studies.

Section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes