Francophone Studies
North America, Africa, and the Caribbean
Our examination of the French-speaking world outside of France includes cross-disciplinary examinations of historical transmission. Questions of colonization, diaspora, immigration, identity, poverty, and exoticism offer different areas of investigation.
Our studies of "French outside France"—that is, texts produced in French outside Europe and also cultural responses to France and the French influence—are informed through postcolonial studies, transatlantic studies, and Mediterranean studies. While East-West relations mark periods of exchange of points of tension in all periods of French Studies since the Middle Ages, Francophone culture as it defines the legacy of the French colonial empire plays a major role contemporary French Studies.
Examining the emergence of the rich body of culture works through which North Africans of former French colonies and Caribbean writers (Seth Graebner) explore question identity as part of their struggle to define themselves against the influence of the French tradition.
Francophone Faculty Group
The Francophone Faculty Group is an interdisciplinary collection of faculty at Washington and Saint Louis Universities, with interests around the Francophone world. Our members are specialists in literature, history, anthropology, art history, African studies, and other areas. We meet usually twice a semester to discuss work in the field, which we define as the study not only of the French-speaking world beyond France, but also of France in its relation to its historical and cultural Others: its political interlocutors, ethnic and religious minorities, former colonies, etc.
In addition to providing a forum for critique of our own scholarly work, we invite a guest lecturer to campus once a year for a session open to the public. Our guests have included Lydie Moudileno (University of Pennsylvania), Mireille Rosello (Universität van Amsterdam), Abiola Irele (Harvard University), and Christopher Miller (Yale University).
