Description
Book SynopsisRichard Serrano begins his provocative new work Against the Postcolonial with the bold statement that Francophone studies is mostly a mirage, while postcolonial studies is mostly a delusion. He argues that many attempts to use postcoloniality to account for francophone writers tell us more about the critics' assumptions than about the writers' works. Furthermore, he asserts that postcolonial studies, with its antecedents as an Anglophone Indian project that emerged in response to the weakening British Raj, is but one sort of narrative of colonialism into which writers of French expression do not neatly fit. In an insightful exploration of the work of five writers from lands formerly or currently ruled by FranceAlgeria, Cambodia, Guiana, Madagascar, and MaliSerrano demonstrates the rewards of research that engages in textual analysis within its historical and literary context. He deftly argues against the relevance of a homogenizing critical practice; considering these writers postcolo
Trade ReviewCritiques of postcolonial theory are not in short supply, but Serrano's approach is a useful one in that it brings this discussion into the field of Francophone Studies…Serrano offers carefully researched, thoughtful analyses and a valuable antidote to reductive critical practice. * L'esprit Créateur *
Serrano's book is an engaging and challenging critical work that calls for a reevaluation of Postcolonial and Francophone Studies, as well as a revision of the relationship between the different constituencies of the French Empire. -- Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi, Stanford University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Africans to Their Posts: Yambo Ouologuem's Postmodern Parody of the Postcolonial Chapter 3 Words of the Tribe: Rabearivelo's Mallarmé in Madagascar Chapter 4 Jean Amrouche and the Ends of L'Algérie Française Chapter 5 Makhali-Phal and the Perils of Métissage Chapter 6 Léon-Gontran Damas and the Invasion of Senegal Chapter 7 Postlude as Palinode - Almost
