UCLA

My dissertation investigates questions of education in the discourses and representations employed by writers from Central and West Africa who work in the French language. In my project, I question not only the ways education, including French language acquisition and literary pedagogy, continues to be affected by its colonial foundations, but also how this education is reproduced socially in cultural productions and concepts of identity by writers both in France and across Africa. The first chapter examines the ways francophone African women writers subvert the generic form and traditional themes of the roman � formation to reflect the gendered obstacles girls faces to obtain an education. In the second chapter, I present the history of two petites revues (little magazines) produced and published by Congolese writers to demonstrate how they employed literary techniques and didactic discourses to furnish new cultural spaces in the years leading up to independence. The third chapter investigates the use of educational discourses during the debates sparked by the “Pour une litt�rature-monde en fran�ais” manifesto published in Le Monde by the leading writers in the French-speaking world. Lastly, the final chapter analyzes the status of African arts exhibited in French museums since colonialism through the cinematic productions engaging these issues in this type of setting.

I posit that the colonial education system created a network of mobility allowing students and instructors from France and the colonies to move around the empire. After decolonization, alternate networks of mobilities developed, including relocation for educational or vocational training and clandestine migration. My dissertation incorporates governmental and journalistic archival materials as well as critical readings of literary texts by francophone writers of African origin who record these networks. By focusing on the ways literary pedagogy and educational institutions were incorporated into colonial operations in dialogue with postcolonial literary texts, I demonstrate how French literature both assisted colonial expansion and became the primary mode of cultural representation to document the continuity of mobilities between France and Africa.