L'Idée de l'empire dans l'imaginaire français

Catalog description

From the early nineteenth century to the 1931 Colonial Exposition in Paris and the Algerian Revolution, ideas and debates about slavery, race, and colonialism informed the ways in which French writers and intellectuals thought about empire and its relationship to national identity. This course examines how these debates took shape through contrasting imaginative conceptions of empire from the 1800s until the 1960s, when France lost most of her colonies. How did visions of empire contribute to the formation of French colonial identity, and what kind of purchase do these ideas have on contemporary French cultural and political life? In French. Prerequisite: a course at the 600- or 700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown.