This course focuses on the political possibilities of unnatural narrative in decolonial contexts in the former French empire. Unnatural narratives, according to one theorist, suggestively violate some sort of conceptual boundary, by featuring characters who refuse to die, zombie plots, or ghostly narrators. But what is the political cost to the recourse to the imaginary? Can a novel or a film turn away from realism in order to achieve material political ends? If so, how should critics and readers label these non-mimetic texts in decolonial Francophone contexts? Are they new examples of surrealism, magical realism, Afrofuturism, African futurism, science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction? What are the stakes in assigning these labels, and how does the interpretation of these works impact their reception, translation, and proliferation in a global marketplace? Discussions will focus on topics such as (de/post/neo) colonialism, globalization, modernity, migration, multilingualism, racialization, authorship and relation in our analysis of the aesthetics and politics of unnatural narrative across the French-speaking world. Authors and filmmakers include Sony Labou Tansi, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Djbril Diop Mambety, Marie NDiaye, and Mati Diop.
3-5 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
This course focuses on the political possibilities of unnatural narrative in decolonial contexts in the former French empire. Unnatural narratives, according to one theorist, suggestively violate some sort of conceptual boundary, by featuring characters who refuse to die, zombie plots, or ghostly narrators. But what is the political cost to the recourse to the imaginary? Can a novel or a film turn away from realism in order to achieve material political ends? If so, how should critics and readers label these non-mimetic texts in decolonial Francophone contexts? Are they new examples of surrealism, magical realism, Afrofuturism, African futurism, science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction? What are the stakes in assigning these labels, and how does the interpretation of these works impact their reception, translation, and proliferation in a global marketplace? Discussions will focus on topics such as (de/post/neo) colonialism, globalization, modernity, migration, multilingualism, racialization, authorship and relation in our analysis of the aesthetics and politics of unnatural narrative across the French-speaking world. Authors and filmmakers include Sony Labou Tansi, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Djbril Diop Mambety, Marie NDiaye, and Mati Diop.