In recent years, the translation and production, in French, of postcolonial and decolonial theories have had a polarizing impact on the French academic and political worlds, particularly in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the rise of right-wing ethnonationalism. Colonial/Decolonial, a course taught in French and open to anyone who successfully completed FREN 215, is an introductory exploration of the (sometimes highly contentious) debates surrounding the role of colonization and its aftermaths in the formation of French and Francophone culture and society. In the first half of the course, we examine the genesis and justification of the French colonial projects of the 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries. Readings of this first half include start from the architects of the French empire to some of the main figures of Francophone anticolonial thought (Nguyen Ai Quoc, the Nardal sisters, etc.) The second half of the course investigates the "postcolonial" and "decolonial" as both historical phases and distinct but communicating schools of thought. In this second part, we discuss the specificities of the process of decolonization from France; the evolution of the status of former French colonies; and the exchanges between the Francophone world and other formerly colonized parts of world. In this respect, we examine how the "French postcolonial" borrows and distinguishes itself from intellectual movements such as Subaltern Studies, Decoloniality, and Critical Race Theory. Guiding us through some of these questions will be writers and thinkers such as Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Assia Djebar, and Maboula Soumahoro, among others. |