UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

Department of Germanic and Romance Studies

COLLOQUE INTERNATIONAL :

Les Francophonies postcoloniales : textes, contextes

Novembre 7-9 2013

(Postcolonial Francophonies : Texts, Contexts)

The Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, will hold an International Colloquium on the theme Postcolonial Francophonies: Texts, Contexts from November 7 to 9 2013.

The primary aim of the Colloquium is to draw attention to the growing body of literary and philosophical works from French-speaking countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. These works, in spite of their distinct historical and cultural underpinning, demonstrate a compelling interconnectedness that leads us to see them as manifestations of what the French sociologist Georges Balandier justifiably termed ‘la situation postcolonial’.

An essential feature of these literatures is that they bear multiple hybridizations, and are located at the intersection of the languages and cultures of the imperial powers and that of the conflating strands of native cultures. The Colloquium seeks to emphasize on these two articulations. Literary works will be read for what they reveal of themselves as products of literary practices shaped within specific social and cultural conditions; as well as for the critical and theoretical considerations that have sustained them from the time of their inception during the Post War years until their recent retrieval within discussions on postcolonialism and postcolonial studies.

The Colloquium will therefore focus on four main themes

Writing in the colony/ Writing the Colony
Literature and its sociopolitical context

Thinking France/Living in France
Theorizing the postcolonial: what implications for teaching and research?

You are requested to submit a 200 word abstract along with a 5 line bio-bibliography latest by July 20, 2013 to the following email address: Kusumaggarwal@gmail.com.

The main language of the Colloquium will be French and possibly a session in English.

Scientific Committee
Justin K. Bisanswa, Laval University, Canada
Anthony Mangeon, University of Strasbourg, France
Kusum Aggarwal, University of Delhi