Courses

A comprehensive survey of literature written in French from sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. The context of French colonialism and its institutions; the rise of Negritude and nationalism; independence and the postcolonial era. Authors include Senghor, Césaire, Sembène (including film), Kourouma, Bâ, Belaya, Condé, and Lopes.

Observing the centenary of poet-statesman Aimé Césaire’s birth, this course examines the context of his Martinique in the twentieth century; Paris in the 1930s and the birth of Negritude; and the politics and poetry of decolonization. Readings of Césaire’s main texts, from Notebook of a Return to the Native Land onward.

Reading knowledge of French required.