FREN 302 Global Francophone Worlds: Displacement, Migration, Memory, and Identity on the Page and on the Screen
How do writers and filmmakers across the Francophone sphere represent identity, displacement, marginality, and historical memory through literature and film? Pairing novels such as Kiffe kiffe demain, L’amant, Verre Cassé, and Moi,Tituba sorcière with films including La Haine, Atlantique, Touki Bouki, and Daughters of the Dust, this course tracks and storytelling across France, West Africa, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and North America. Engaging diverse cultural and historical contexts shaped by colonialism and diaspora, students will analyze how storytelling shifts and morphs across the page and across the screen.
Paying particular attention to global variations of the French language through comparative analysis of literature and film (and to a lesser degree music, art, fashion, and other forms of cultural expression), students will explore global interdependence via an exploration of shared colonial histories of displacement, migration, and diaspora linking regions as varied as Vietnam, Senegal, Guadeloupe, and Quebec.