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Research Interests
- 20th and 21st Century Literature in French, from former French colonies and the French-speaking world
- Special concentration on French colonialism and post-colonialism
- Interests in the Caribbean (Antilles), West Africa, and North Africa
- Post-colonial theory and analysis
Research Description
Listen to an interview I did on The Author as Cannibal for The Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy! https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yfB2Zw4YcjMLVwCK9Lgs7?si=be600359cb3343bb
The Author as Cannibal: Rewriting in Francophone Literature as a Post-Colonial Genre (1969-1995) (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) shows how in the first decades after the end of French rule, Francophone authors engaged in an exercise of rewriting narratives from the colonial literary canon. In The Author as Cannibal, I present these textual revisions as figurative acts of cannibalism and examines how these literary cannibalizations critique colonialism and its legacy in each author’s homeland. I focus on four representative texts: Une tempête (1969) by Aimé Césaire, Le temps de Tamango (1981) by Boubacar Boris Diop, L’amour, la fantasia (1985) by Assia Djebar, and La migration des coeurs (1995) by Maryse Condé. Though written independently in Africa and the Caribbean, these texts all combine critical adaptation with creative destruction in an attempt to eradicate the social, political, cultural, and linguistic remnants of colonization long after independence.
The Author as Cannibal situates these works within Francophone studies, showing that the extent of their postcolonial critique is better understood when they are considered collectively. Crucial to the book are two interviews with Maryse Condé, which provide great insight on literary cannibalism. By foregrounding thematic concerns and writing strategies in these texts, I show how these re-writings are an underappreciated collective form of protest and resistance for Francophone authors.
Praise for The Author as Cannibal:
Education
- PhD, Harvard University
- MA, Rice University
- BA, Rice University
Courses Taught
- FR 156 Exploring Paris
- FR 319 Francophone Worlds-Survey of foundational theory and literature in French from former colonies
- FR 479 Studies in Francophonie-Advanced survey of foundational theory and literature in French from former colonies
- FR 576 Graduate Seminar-Maryse Condé
- FR 576 Graduate Seminar-Colonization on film
External Links
Recent Talks:
"On the Politics of Introduction: Paratexts, Praxis, and the Debris of Empire.” Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference, London, UK, December 2025
"Le Caravage créole: Maryse Condé and Cannibal Aesthetics." Sterling Brown ’22 Africana Studies Lecture. Williams College, November 2025. (Invited Talk)
“Sartre’s Preface to Frantz Fanon’s Les damnés de la terre: Or, Empire’s Eclipse.” Caribbean Philosophical Association, Le François, Martinique, 2025
“Force-Bonté and its Place in the French-Language Autobiographical Genre.” African Literature Association, Nairobi, Kenya, 2025
“The Impossible Return: What is Maryse Condé to Africa?” University of Rochester, April 2025. (Invited Talk)
“The Conscience of the 93: Ladj Ly’s Trajectory From Documentary to Feature Filmmaker.” 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium. Greensboro, NC, March 2025.
"David Diop’s Frère d’âme: A Post-Colonial Response to WW1." Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies Annual Conference, London, UK, November 2024
“Marjane Satrapi’s Evolving Selfie.” International Auto/Biography Association World Conference. Rejkyavik, Iceland, June 2024.
Recent Publications
“Archives, Power, and the Limits of Official Memory: The Stora Report and Postcolonial France” in Power, Erasure and Resistance in (Post)Colonial Archives (forthcoming, Routledge)
“Maryse Condé’s L’évangile du nouveau monde: One Final Crossing, One Final Cannibalization.” Maryse Condé and Caribbean Crossings. Hodgson, Kate and Felisa Vergara Reynolds, Editors (forthcoming, Liverpool Press)