Department of French

Paper Fr16

A special topic in French studies (C): Colonization, Empire and Globalization: Technologies of Space in French Culture since 1700

This paper will be offered at Part II from 2012/2013.

Through complementary and overlapping historical, theoretical and literary studies, the paper explores the impact of technological innovation, colonial expansion and post-colonial globalization on the conceptualization of space and national politics in French and Francophone literary culture and thought.

The historical span stretches from the eighteenth century through to the present day, focussing especially on France's first colonial empire centred on the sugar islands of the West Indies and on the subsequent and unfinished process of decolonization. The relation of Enlightenment thought and culture to processes of colonial expansion will provide a central focus, as will the diverse technologies (of travel, cultural transmission, communication and conquest) which facilitated that expansion. Historical and theoretical approaches to colonial and globalized space will provide a central focus for the paper and will be combined with explorations of the literary and cultural representations of space, with a key emphasis on technologies of transmission, contact and movement. Contemporary theories of post-colonial globalization will be complemented by critical-historical material which engages with the earlier period of colonial expansion.

Students will acquire a historical understanding of French colonial expansion and its relation to technological innovation and the rise of global capitalism. They will explore the impact of globalization on the material transmission (and translation) of texts. In this context they will also explore the politics and problems of national articulations of literary cultures. Focusing on more theoretical and historiographical writing, students will also study how travel, transport and communication around the globe has given rise to new conceptualizations of space and time.

Structure of the paper

A: Compasses and computers

This section relates to the history of 'globalization' and the technologies that have shaped the conditions of contact and cultural transmission. It will be approached from book historical perspectives and also in terms of recent thinking about the technologies of contemporary global space.

B: Theories of space and time

This section will include questions that relate to how globalization has shaped understandings of space and time. More specifically it will explore: i) how global travel has been used to characterize modernity; ii) theoretical texts relating to space which will build the critical concept of 'spatial ecology' (texts by, for example: Virilio, Lefebvre, de Certeau, Auge, Balibar; but also Anglo-American theoretical work on the ecology and geography of space inspired by recent French thought, e.g. Conley, Eldon).

C: Imagined landscapes

This section will require students to answer questions relating to the imagining of space in a global age in terms of close reading of particular authors of historical and imaginative fiction relating to travel, exploration and life in colonial/former colonial communities.

The paper will be taught in a combination of lectures and seminars.

Reading

Given the very broad temporal and comparative scope of this paper, reading will be developed on the basis of specific lecture and seminar topics. Lectures and seminars will offer initial lists of historiographic, theoretical and literary or filmic texts which can be used by students as a basis for further guided reading (as is currently the case with paper CS5, 'The Body').

Examination

Please see the specimen exam paper for an example of the current format of the paper.

Further information

Please contact Dr Jenny Mander jsm15@cam.ac.uk to discuss the paper further.