Literature and Philosophy of Place

Catalog description

Themes of place and displacement in literature and philosophy of the larger French-speaking world, focusing on diasporic writers. Paris as a magnet for artists and thinkers seeking freedom from restrictive environments. Contrast the experiences of characters who are at "home" and those who are "away," the anxieties of exile and of colonialism, how one person's claim on home can be another's experience of being invaded,. Philosophers' analyses of the interdependence of place and identity, place and belonging, the sometimes contradictory nature of 'home,' as they pertain to the literary (fiction, essay, poetry) texts we will read.