Memory, Empire, and Postcolonialism

Legacies of French Colonialism

Edited by Alec Hargreaves

Not available to order

Publication date:

08 September 2005

Length of book:

264 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739157688

Long repressed following the collapse of empire, memories of the French colonial experience have recently gained unprecedented visibility. In popular culture, scholarly research, personal memoirs, public commemorations, and new ethnicities associated with the settlement of postcolonial immigrant minorities, the legacy of colonialism is now more apparent in France than at any time in the past. How is this upsurge of interest in the colonial past to be explained? Does the commemoration of empire necessarily imply glorification or condemnation? To what extent have previously marginalized voices succeeded in making themselves heard in new narratives of empire? While veils of secrecy have been lifted, what taboos still remain and why? These are among the questions addressed by an international team of leading researchers in this interdisciplinary volume, which will interest scholars in a wide range of disciplines including French studies, history, literature, cultural studies, and anthropology.
This collection, an insightful addition to the scholarship on memories of the French Empire, reaches beyond the confines of French and francophone studies as some contributions draw parallels between France's colonial history and the United States' current policies.