De-centring French studies: Towards a postcolonial theory of Francophone cultures

French Cultural Studies

Volumn 13, Issue 38, 2002, Pages 165-185

  Murphy, David ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34347279832     PISSN: 09571558     EISSN: 17402352     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/095715580201300203     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. An indication of the minor position occupied by 'Francophone' studies in French departments in the Anglophone world is to be found in a recent article by Thomas A. Hale, which is presented as a very basic, step-by-step guide for the average 'French studies' lecturer called upon to teach a course on African literature in French. This is far removed from the highly developed 'postcolonial theory' in English departments. See Thomas A. Hale, 'Francophone African Literature and the Hexagon: Building Bridges for the New Millennium', The French Review, 72, 3 (February 1999), 444-55.
2. In this opening section, I have highlighted the problematic nature of terms such as 'Francophone' and 'French studies' by using quotation marks. In the remainder of the article, these terms will only appear in quotation marks when they are being problematized within specific arguments.
3. For a discussion of the role of the French language in Cameroun, see Aline Cook, 'Francophonie au Cameroun indépendant: discours politique et mise en pratique au Cameroun oriental', in Bridget Jones, Arnauld Miguet, and Patrick Corcoran (eds), Francophonie: mythes, masques et réalités (Paris: Publisud, 1996), 159-74.
4. Boutros-Ghali was due to reach the end of his term of office in October 2001, but in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Centre on 11 September, the conference in Beirut at which his replacement was to be decided was postponed. Prior to this postponement, Henri Lopes had emerged as Boutros-Ghali's main rival for the position. In the past, Lopes has been a Congolese prime minister (Congo-Brazzaville) as well as a deputy head of UNESCO, and he is currently Congolese ambassador to France. A product of the colonial education system and a longtime resident in Paris, Lopes seems to fit perfectly the profile of the 'Francophone' who believes wholeheartedly in the 'universal' mission of French language and culture. For details of the race to succeed Boutros-Ghali, see Francis Kpatindé, 'Après Boutros-Ghali, qui?', Jeune Afrique/l'intelligent, 2075 (17-23 octobre 2000), 62-3.
5. A 'surprise' candidate emerged in September 2001 when the Franco-Cameroonian novelist, Calixthe Beyala entered the fray, presenting herself as someone capable of creating a 'Francophonie populaire'. However, it is far from clear how she intends to achieve such an objective. Her ideas for la Francophonie are extremely idealistic and aspirational without any concrete plan for putting them into practice. See Tidiane Dioh, 'Un candidat pas comme les autres', Jeune Afrique/l'intelligent, 2124 (25 septembre-1 octobre 2001), 105.
6. Xavier Deniau, La Francophonie (1983; Paris: PUF, 'Que sais-je?', 1998).
7. Axel Maugey, Le Roman de la francophonie (Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1993), 99.
8. Anne Judge, 'La Francophonie: mythes, masques et réalités', in Bridget Jones, Arnauld Miguet, and Patrick Corcoran (eds), Francophonie: mythes, masques et réalités (Paris: Publisud, 1996), 19-43 (30).
9. Belinda Jack, Francophone Literatures: an Introductory Survey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 1-22.
10. Gabrielle Parker, 'French-language policy in sub-Saharan Africa', Modern and Contemporary France, NS, 4/4 (1996), 471-81 (477).
11. For a discussion of French involvement in Rwanda, see Linda Melvern, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide (London and New York: Zed Books, 2000), 24-38, 48-9. Most shocking in Melvern's account is the largely substantiated claim that French support for the Rwandan regime was based on a desire to maintain the 'French' presence in the country, as the opposition, based in Uganda, represented an English-speaking, 'Anglo-Saxon' threat.
12. See Judge, 'La Francophonie: mythes, masques et réalités', 36-7.
13. Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997).
14. Pascal Blanchard, 'Entre apothéose et oubli', Manière de voir, 58 (juillet-août 2001), 92-4. Special issue, entitled 'Polémiques sur l'histoire coloniale'.
15. In a fascinating article, Fritz Peter Kirsch examines the discourse of a 'universal' French language in the work of both 'French' and 'Francophone' writers. See Fritz Peter Kirsch, 'Faut-il "francophoniser" l'histoire littéraire de l'hexagone? Sur le "cas" Victor Hugo', Revue de l'Institut de sociologie [Bruxelles], (1990), 41-52.
16. Many of Senghor's ideas on la francité can be found in Liberté 1: Négritude et humanisme (Paris: Seuil, 1964).
17. It is possible that the passing of the generation of African leaders and academics who received a 'colonial' education, at a time when notions of the 'universality' of French language and culture were at their strongest, may bring an end to the Francophone African elite's 'love affair' with France. However, the ambiguity of the relationship between France and Africa continues to take suprising forms: for instance, the magazine, Jeune Afrique, which has long railed against French 'ingérence' in Africa recently ran a front cover with the title, 'Pourquoi la France lâche l'Afrique' in response to the Jospin government's attempt to distance itself from the practices of previous regimes. For the journalists involved (many of them Africans), the underlying assumption is that France must have a 'role' in Africa. See Jeune Afrique/l'intelligent, 2098 (27 mars - 2 avril 2001), 20-9.
18. Laurent Dubois, 'La République métissée: citizenship, colonialism and the borders of French history', Cultural Studies, 14/1 (2000), 15-34 (27).
19. The modern French state has predicated the notion of citizenship on a set of abstract principles that do not allow for ethnic or regional differences from the perceived norm. The numerous 'affaires du foulard' have highlighted the opposition, in the name of the secular state, to the expression of 'religious' beliefs. Equally, the recent debate about limited autonomy for the troubled island of Corsica once again highlighted the resistance of traditional Republicans such as Jean-Pierre Chevènement (who resigned as Minister for the Interior over the issue) to regional cultures, seen as an attack on the notion of equal citizenship for all French people.
20. Similar connections between colonial discourse and the current discourse on immigration are explored in Elizabeth Ezra's excellent study, The Colonial Unconscious: Race and Culture in Interwar France (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000), xii-xiii, 4-5.
21. Alec Hargreaves, 'Francophonie and Globalisation: France at the Crossroads', in Kamal Salhi (ed.), Francophone Voices (Exeter: Elm Bank Publications, 1999), 49-57 (49).
22. As Alec Hargreaves has argued, European or Western writers are readily assimilated into the French canon, while 'post-colonial' works, often written by writers of French nationality (such as Begag and Charef) are considered 'Francophone'. For Hargreaves, the term 'Francophone literature', in its current usage, refers almost exclusively to 'postcolonial literature'. See Hargreaves, 'Francophonie and Globalisation', 51-2.
23. Roger Little provides a fascinating discussion of some of the paradoxes and contradictions of the notion of 'Francophone literature' in his article, 'World Literature in French; or Is Francophonie frankly phoney?', European Review, 9/4 (2001), 421-36. However, although I agree entirely with Little's problematization of 'Francophone' as a term, I do not think that his proposed solution of 'Francographic' (in relation to literature) addresses the fundamental problem posed by the current opposition between 'French' and 'Francophone'.
24. For a discussion of French publishers' attitudes to African literature, see Bernard Loupias, 'Vent d'Afrique', Nouvel Observateur, 15-21 juin 2000, 52-3.
25. For many critics, 'post-colonial' refers to the period after colonialism, while 'postcolonial' refers to the wider notion of the world produced by the colonial encounter.
26. Celia Britton and Michael Syrotinski, 'Introduction', Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory, 24/3 (November 2001), 1-11 (1). Special issue, entitled 'Francophone Texts and Postcolonial Theory', edited by Celia Britton and Michael Syrotinski.
27. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (London: Routledge, 1989).
28. Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme (Paris: Présence africaine, 1955);
29. Frantz Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs (1952; Paris: Seuil, 1995)
30. and Les Damnés de la terre (1961; Paris: Gallimard, Collection Folio, 1991);
31. Albert Memmi, Le Portrait du colonisé (1957; Paris: Payot, 1973).
32. Antoine Compagnon, 'L'Exception française', Textuel, 37 (avril 2000), 41-52 (45).
33. Celia M. Britton, Édouard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory: Strategies of Language and Resistance (Charlottesville, VA and London: University Press of Virginia, 1999).
34. Keith L. Walker, Countermodernism and Francophone Literary Culture: The Game of Slipknot (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 1999). Despite my admiration for the breadth of Walker's knowledge, I find that his work makes far too many sweeping generalizations. For instance, he claims that 'Francophone narratives must always work' against the textual representations of their countries written by the colonizer (p.13), as though the colonial heritage were the only prism through which these writers might view the world.
35. Jean-Marc Moura, Littératures francophones et théorie postcoloniale (Paris: PUF, 1999), 35.
36. Dominique Combe, Poétiques francophones (Paris: Hachette, 1995).
37. Equally, Michel Beniamino's recent study of Francophone literature displays an in-depth knowledge of non-metropolitan French literature but it still fails to address the issues raised by postcolonial theory. See Michel Beniamino, La Francophonie littéraire: essai pour une théorie (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1999).
38. Jean-Louis Joubert (ed.), Littérature francophone: anthologie (Paris: Nathan/ACCT, 1992), 3.
39. Tzvetan Todorov, Nous et les autres: la réflexion française sur la diversité humaine (Paris: Seuil, 1989).
40. Neil Lazarus, Nationalism and Cultural Practice in the Postcolonial World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999);
41. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 1994).
42. Tzvetan Todorov, L'Homme dépaysé (Paris: Seuil, 1996), 131.
43. Emily Apter makes similar points in her excellent article, 'French Colonial Studies and Postcolonial Theory', SubStance, 76/7 (1995), 169-80.
44. For ACHAC's ideas on the Exposition coloniale, see, in particular, Pascal Blanchard, Nicolas Bancel, Sandrine Lemaire, '1931! Tous à l'Expo', Manière de voir, 58 (juillet-août 2001), 46-9.
45. Catherine Hodeir and Michel Pierre provide an excellent and extremely informative overview of the Exposition in their book, L'Exposition coloniale (Bruxelles: Éditions Complexe, 1991).
46. See also Pascal Blanchard and Nicolas Bancel, De l'indigène à l'immigré (Paris: Découvertes Gallimard, 1998) for a fascinating discussion of the transformations undergone by the French 'imaginaire colonial' after decolonization.
47. Conor Cruise O'Brien, Camus (London: Fontana, 1970).
48. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993; London: Vintage, 1994), 208.
49. As Charles Forsdick points out, Said's first major 'postcolonial' work, Orientalism (1978; London: Penguin, 1995), which has been translated into French, has been the subject of much more controversy both in France and in the Anglophone world.
50. See Charles Forsdick, 'Edward Said, Victor Segalen, and the Implications of Post(-)Colonial Criticism', Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies, 5 (1997), 323-39;
51. and 'Edward Said After Theory: The Limits of Counterpoint', in Post-Theory: New Directions in Criticism, edited by Martin McQuillan, Graeme Macdonald, Robin Purves and Stephen Thomson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), 188-99.
52. Edward Said, Culture et impérialisme, trans. by Paul Chemla (Paris: Fayard/Le Monde Diplomatique, 2000).
53. Maurice Weyembergh, 'Recensement et recension des travaux sélectionnés', Albert Camus, 17, textes réunis par Raymond Gay-Crosier (Paris: Revue des lettres modernes, 1996), 139-49 (142; emphasis in original).
54. Nicholas Harrison, 'Camus, Écriture Blanche and the Reader, Between Said and Barthes', Nottingham French Studies, 38/1 (Spring 1999), 55-66 (65-6).
55. Tayeb Bouguerra, Le Dit et le non-dit: A propos de l'Algérie et de l'Algérien chez Albert Camus (Algiers: Office des Publications Universitaires, 1989).
56. Christiane Chaulet-Achour, Albert Camus, Alger (Biarritz: Atlantica, 1998), 101-15.
57. Assia Djebar, Le Blanc de l'Algérie (Paris: Albin Michel, 1995).
58. Aziz Chouaki, Les Oranges (Paris: Éditions Mille et une nuits, 1998), 30-2, 78.
59. Ella Shohat, 'Notes on the Post-Colonial', Social Text, 31-2 (1992), 99-113 (99).
60. Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back, 2.
61. Shohat, 'Notes on the Post-Colonial', 104.
62. Aijaz Ahmad expresses similar ideas in his essay, 'The Politics of Literary Postcoloniality', in Padmini Mongia (ed.), Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: a Reader (London: Arnold, 1996), 276-93.
63. Graham Huggan's The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins (London and New York: Routledge, 2001) is an excellent study of the development of postcolonial studies, providing a powerful critique of the exoticism that underlies certain aspects of this process.
64. Timothy Brennan, At Home in the World: Cosmopolitanism Now (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1997);
65. Neil Lazarus, Nationalism and Cultural Practice in the Postcolonial World.
66. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture;
67. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York and London: Methuen, 1987).
68. Ella Shohat (1992), Tim Brennan (1997) and Neil Lazarus (1999) have all warned of the dangers of espousing a liberal, universalizing notion of 'hybridity' at the expense of concrete political considerations about the power relations betweeen nations in a postcolonial world.
69. Philip D. Curtin (ed.), Imperialism (New York and London: Harper & Row, 1971), xxiii.
70. I use the term 'Francophone postcolonial studies' to refer to the study of postcolonial issues in all literature (as well as other cultural forms) in French, not just texts by non-French writers.
71. Charles Forsdick, 'Travelling Concepts: Postcolonial Approaches to Exoticism', Paragraph, 24/3 (November 2001), 12-29 (17-20).