The Francophone Routes of Postcolonial Thought

One of the more striking omissions from the founding theoretical work of postcolonial studies, The Empire writes Back (1989), is Francophone writing in general and the Francophone Caribbean in particular. Nevertheless, the Francophone Caribbean maintains a shadowy yet powerful presence in postcolonial thought. The course sets out both to resituate francophone writing in the blindspots of postcolonial theory and to explore the way in which a postcolonial approach liberates writing in French from what some see a the neocolonial label of francophonie.