African Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and form
<p>This is a study of two literary journals published in Europe in the years around African decolonization: <em>Présence Africaine</em> in Paris, and <em>Mensagem</em> in Lisbon. Drawing on close reading, archival research and work in postcolonial and critical theory, t...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English, French, Portuguese |
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2018
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| _version_ | 1797068750164328448 |
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| author | Reza, A |
| author2 | Hiddleston, J |
| author_facet | Hiddleston, J Reza, A |
| author_sort | Reza, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This is a study of two literary journals published in Europe in the years around African decolonization: <em>Présence Africaine</em> in Paris, and <em>Mensagem</em> in Lisbon. Drawing on close reading, archival research and work in postcolonial and critical theory, the thesis offers the first substantial engagement with the connections between the two journals.</p> <p>The study considers how the body of thinking these journals represent can inform contemporary literary-critical postcolonial scholarship and makes a number of theoretical propositions. First, the study argues for the significance of the literary journal as a key form in the conjuncture of African decolonization. Second, it proposes (and demonstrates) a historically and geographically contingent understanding of the relationships between literature, culture and politics. Third, through its interrogation of multi-scalar anti-colonial literary geographies, the study makes an empirical and theoretical contribution to comparative, multilingual and ‘transcolonial’ scholarship in francophone and lusophone postcolonial studies. Finally, I make a further empirical contribution to the study of African and anti-colonial literary history by bringing forward the place of women at both institutions and analysing their writing.</p> <p>Very little academic work has treated French and Portuguese language anti-colonial literary practice comparatively. If anything, postcolonial work in both languages has been more concerned to delineate the historical and theoretical distinctiveness of francophone and lusophone literary histories from a dominant body of anglophone postcolonial theory. As this research emphasizes, however, much anti-colonial African publishing and writing in French, Portuguese and English deliberately deployed translation and multilingual modes of ‘lateral and associative’ (Boehmer, 2005) intertextuality as a way of countering state-backed exceptionalist arguments about the French and Portuguese languages and colonial projects. This intertextuality is manifest in literary journals.</p> <p>Methodologically, this study both compares the two journals and also figures them as part of shared transnational literary and anti-colonial networks. I propose modes of comparative reading capable of dealing both with the specificity of Portuguese and French colonial and anti-colonial histories and with the continuities between European colonial-capitalist practices. This comparative mode addresses both the particularities of African writing in French and Portuguese and the multilingual intertextuality these journals display.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:14:36Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:52f93852-2232-4e69-bddb-fc3ce20335af |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English, French, Portuguese |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:14:36Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:52f93852-2232-4e69-bddb-fc3ce20335af2022-03-26T16:28:47ZAfrican Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and formThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:52f93852-2232-4e69-bddb-fc3ce20335afEnglish, French, PortugueseORA Deposit2018Reza, AHiddleston, JRothwell, P<p>This is a study of two literary journals published in Europe in the years around African decolonization: <em>Présence Africaine</em> in Paris, and <em>Mensagem</em> in Lisbon. Drawing on close reading, archival research and work in postcolonial and critical theory, the thesis offers the first substantial engagement with the connections between the two journals.</p> <p>The study considers how the body of thinking these journals represent can inform contemporary literary-critical postcolonial scholarship and makes a number of theoretical propositions. First, the study argues for the significance of the literary journal as a key form in the conjuncture of African decolonization. Second, it proposes (and demonstrates) a historically and geographically contingent understanding of the relationships between literature, culture and politics. Third, through its interrogation of multi-scalar anti-colonial literary geographies, the study makes an empirical and theoretical contribution to comparative, multilingual and ‘transcolonial’ scholarship in francophone and lusophone postcolonial studies. Finally, I make a further empirical contribution to the study of African and anti-colonial literary history by bringing forward the place of women at both institutions and analysing their writing.</p> <p>Very little academic work has treated French and Portuguese language anti-colonial literary practice comparatively. If anything, postcolonial work in both languages has been more concerned to delineate the historical and theoretical distinctiveness of francophone and lusophone literary histories from a dominant body of anglophone postcolonial theory. As this research emphasizes, however, much anti-colonial African publishing and writing in French, Portuguese and English deliberately deployed translation and multilingual modes of ‘lateral and associative’ (Boehmer, 2005) intertextuality as a way of countering state-backed exceptionalist arguments about the French and Portuguese languages and colonial projects. This intertextuality is manifest in literary journals.</p> <p>Methodologically, this study both compares the two journals and also figures them as part of shared transnational literary and anti-colonial networks. I propose modes of comparative reading capable of dealing both with the specificity of Portuguese and French colonial and anti-colonial histories and with the continuities between European colonial-capitalist practices. This comparative mode addresses both the particularities of African writing in French and Portuguese and the multilingual intertextuality these journals display.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Reza, A African Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and form |
| title | African Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and form |
| title_full | African Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and form |
| title_fullStr | African Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and form |
| title_full_unstemmed | African Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and form |
| title_short | African Literary Journals in French and Portuguese, 1947-1968: politics, culture and form |
| title_sort | african literary journals in french and portuguese 1947 1968 politics culture and form |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rezaa africanliteraryjournalsinfrenchandportuguese19471968politicscultureandform |