Instructor: Anna Schrade
aschrade@hampshire.edu
Office hours: Thursday 14:00
Black Paris –Anna Schrade
HACU-0232
Tuesdays, Thursdays 12:30-1:50 pm
Fall 2011
Syllabus (Subject to Change)
Paris, the capital of the former French colonial empire, and famously known as “Ville
lumière,” in the double sense of “city of light” and “center of the European Enlightment,”
has long been a contact zone. It became what it is today not least through diverse currents
of migration and transcultural encounters between Africa, the Black Diaspora and Europe.
This seminar will trace these histories and encounters, which have often been silenced and
erased within narratives of modernity, as we explore Paris as a site of exchange and
discontinuity, translation and transition, an intersection of concealed, sometimes illegal or
enforced encounters between Africa and Europe. We will critically read historical
documents, literary examples, ethnographic reports and visual material (film documents,
documentary film, “ciné beur”, artist videos) to explore the social and cultural history of
“Black Paris”: from the African soldiers who fought for France during World War I, via African
American artists, intellectuals, musicians and writers who lived and worked in Paris, up to
contemporary social movements like the “sans papiers” and ‘les indigènes de la république”.
We will also question and challenge dominant national self-representations and the national
imaginary of a colorblind French nation-state and the principles of inclusion upon which it is
built.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To understand the historic continuities between French and European colonialism and
contemporary social inequalities in France and Europe.
To examine the workings of contemporary racism, in particular, colorblind racism in France.
To investigate the relationship between race, nation, class and gender.
To develop a competency in African Diaspora Studies and the emerging scholarly field of
Black European Studies.
To develop a competency in the core ideas of Postcolonial Studies and Critical Race Theory.
Sep 8
Introduction and Lecture: Why ‘Black Paris’? – The African diaspora(s) in Paris as
a category of knowledge and analysis.
Sep 13
Race in France I (Discussion of readings)
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Sep 15
Stam, Robert und Ella Shohat. 1994. Race and Racism. In: Unthinking
Eurocentrism - Multiculturalism and the Media. pp.18 – 25.
Chapman Herrick and Laura L. Frader (eds.) 2004. Introduction. Race in
France: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Difference. pp. 1-19.
Race in France II (Discussion of readings)
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Stovall, Tyler. 2006. Race and the Making of the Nation: Blacks in Modern
France. In: Gomez, Michael A. (ed.) Diasporic Africa: A Reader. pp. 200 –
219.
Fredrickson, George M. 2008. Diverse Republics: French and American
Responses to Racial Pluralism. In: Diverse Nations: Explorations in the
History of Racial and Ethnic Pluralism. pp.170 – 184.
Colonial Settings: Staging Empire in the “City of Light”
Sep 20
Human Zoos and the Interwar Colonial Expositions (Exerpts from the film „Zoo
Humains“ by Pascal Blanchard 2005 and discussion of readings)
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Sep 22
Blanchard, Pascal et al. (eds.) 2008. From Scientific Racism to Popular and
Colonial Racism in France and the West. In: Human Zoos: Science and
Spectacle in the Age of Colonial Empires. pp.104 – 113.
Blanchard, Pascal and Bancel, Nicolas 2000. Human Zoos. Racist Theme
Parks for European Colonialists. In: Le Monde diplomatique, pp.1-7.
Hale, Dana. S. 2008. La Force Noir. In: Races on Display: French
Representations of Colonized People 1886-1940. pp. 91-117.
Les Tirailleurs Sénégalais – African Soldiers in the French Army (Discussion of
film and readings)
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Echenberg, Myron.1991. Colonial Conscripts. The Tirialleurs Sénégalais in
French West Africa, 1857 – 1960. pp. 1-6; 47-104 and 164-170.
Berliner, Brett. A. 2002. Tirailleurs Sénégalais and the Making of the Grand
Enfant. In: Ambivalent Desire: The Exotic Black Other in Jazz Age France.
pp. 9-37.
Film screening: „Camp de Thiaroye” by Sembène Ousmane 1988 (Evening Session) T.B.A.
(Friday. Sept 23. at 5 p.m. ???)
Assignment: Response Paper due on Sept. 27th !
Sep 27
The German ‘Black Shame’ campaign against African Soldiers in the French
Army.
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Wigger, Iris 2010. 'Black Shame' — the campaign against 'racial
degeneration' and female degradation in interwar Europe. In: Race & Class
January 2010 51. pp. 33-46.
Alain Locke: "The Black Watch on the Rhine" In: Opportunity, December
1925, pp. 240.
Claude McKay: “Once more the Germans face Black Troups,” Opportunity,
November 1939. pp. 324.
Transnational Encounters - Modernist Art and Popular Entertainment in Jazz Age Paris
Sep 29
“Negrophilia” (Discussion of readings)
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Oct 4
Clifford, James. 1989. “Negrophilia”. In: Holier, Denis (ed.) A New History
of French Literature, pp. 901-908.
Jules Rosette, Benetta. 1998. An Uneasy Collaboration: The Dialogue
between French Anthropology and Black Paris. In: Black Paris: The African
Writers’ Landscape. pp.1- 42.
Josephine Baker (Student – presentation)
Stovall, Tyler. 2008. “The New Woman and the New Empire: Josephine
Baker and Changing Views of Femininity in Interwar France”, In: The
Scholar and Feminist Online, Double Issue: Fall 2007/Spring 2008. pp.1-13.
(Recommended reading for student-presentation:
- Jules Rosette, Benetta. 2007. Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and
the Image. Introduction.
- Ezra, Elizabeth, 2000. The Colonial Unconscious. Race and Culture in
Interwar France, Ithaca/London. Chapter 4: pp. 75-97.
- Ezra, Elisabeth 2008. Josephine Baker, Transnational Star—the French
Way)
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Film screening: „Black Diva in a White Man’s World” by Annette von
Wangenheim, 2006. 45 mins.
Oct 6
Harlem at the Seine - African American Artists and Writers in Paris Student
presentations on selected artists and writers (15 min.) for example on:
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Alain Locke: "More of the New Negro in Art" In: Opportunity (December
1925) and Locke’s introduction to “The New Negro”. (see: Dawahare,
Anthony. 2003. The Specter of Radicalism in Alain Locke’s “The New
Negro”. In: Bill V.Mullen and James Smethurst (eds.) Left of The Color Line.
Race, Radicalism, and Twentieth-Century Literature of the United States.)
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Langston Hughes: Poems: “White Man” and “Jazz Band in a Parisian
Cabaret”.
Claude McKay: Poem: “Paris” and “Once more the Germans face Black
Troups,” Opportunity, November 1939. 324.
James Baldwin in Paris
Oct 11, October break, no class
Oct 13
Student presentations on selected artists and writers (15 min.) for example
on:
- Countee Cullen: “Letters from Paris” and Poems: “To France”, “To Certain
Critics”
- “Bricktop”- making place for African Americans in Paris, Montmartre.
- Africanism in the art work of Nancy Elisabeth Prophet, Augusta Savage,
Palmer Hayden and Archibald Motley.
(Recommended readings for student presentations:
- Stovall, Tyler. 1996. Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light.
Chapter 2 & 3, pp. 25-118.
- Michel Fabre, From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France,
1840-1980.)
Oct 18
Négritude I (Discussion of readings)
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Lewis, Shireen K. 2006. What was Négritude. In: Race, Culture, and
Identity: Francophone West African and Caribbean Literature and Theory
from Négritude to Créolité. pp. 23-55.
Lewis, Shireen K. 2006. Gendering Négritude: Paulette Nardal’s
Contribution to the Birth of Modern Francophone Literature. In: Race,
Culture, and Identity: Francophone West African and Caribbean Literature
and Theory from Négritude to Créolité. pp. 55-70.
Oct 20
Negritude II. Student presentations (15 min.) on selected writers for example
on:
- Aimé Césaire: “Discours on Colonialism”. (see: Rebecca Reiland, Africana
Critical Theory – Reconstructing the Black Radical Tradition. 2009)
- Paulette and Jane Nardal: “Black Internationalism”, “Exotic Puppets”, “The
Awakening of Race Conciousness among Black Students”. In: SharpleyWhiting, T. Denea. 2002. Negritude Women.
Oct 25
Negritude III. Student presentations (15 min.) on selected writers for
example on:
- Jean Paul Sartre: “Orphée Noir” (Black Orpheus), Introduction to
Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache, edited by Léopold
Sédar Senghor, 1948. (see: Manthia Diawara, “On Sartre’s Black Orpheus”
1996. pp.1-5.)
- Frantz Fanon: “The lived Experiance of the Black Man” In: Black Skin,
White Masks, 1952. (see: Max Silverman Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White
Masks: New Interdisciplinary Essays. 2005 )
“Presence Africaine” and Neo-Colonial Predicaments
Oct 27
Presence Africaine and Decolonization (Discussion of readings)
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Jules Rosette, Benetta.1989. Antithetical Africa: The Conferences and
Festivals of Présence Africaine. In: Black Paris. The African Writers’
Landscape. pp. 49-79.
Film screening: “Battle of Algier” by Gillo Pontecorvo (1966); Evening Session T.B.A.,
(Friday Oct 28, 5 p.m.????)
Nov 1
Algeria and Frantz Fanon (Discussion of films and reading)
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Stam, Robert. 2003. Fanon, Algeria and the Cinema: The Politics of
Identification. In: Stam, Robert und Ella Shohat (eds.) Multiculturalism,
Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media. pp. 18-42.
Film screening: “Black Skin, White Masks” by Isaac Julien (1996) (1:48 mins); Evening
Session (Nov 3, 7 p.m.????)
Nov 3 advising day, no class
Nov 8
Visions and Tensions of Frenchness (Discussion of reading)
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Shepard, Todd. 2009. Excluding the Harkis from Repatriate Status,
Excluding Muslim Algerians from French Identity. In: Gafaiti, Hafid et.al.
(eds.) Transnational Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World. pp.
94-114.
Camiscoli, Elisa 2009. Race Making and Race Mixing in the Early Twentith
Century Immigration Debate. In: In: Hafid Gafaiti et.al (eds.) Transnational
Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World. pp. 53-70.
Postcolonial Migrations and New Diasporas
Nov 10
Transnational Labour Migration (Discussion of readings)
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Freedman, Jane. 2003. Conceptions of Immigration and Citizenship. In:
Immigration and Insecurity in France. pp. 31-53.
Macmaster, Neil. 2009. Shantytown Republics. Algerian Migrants and the
Culture of Space in the Bidonvilles. In: Hafid Gafaiti et.al (eds.)
Transnational Spaces and Identities in the Francophone World. pp.73-93.
Durmelat, Sylvie. 2000. Transmission and Mourning in Mémoires
d’Immigrés: l’Héritage Maghrébin : Yamina Benguigui as ‘Memory
Entrepreneuse.’ In: Freedman, Jane and Carrie Tarr (eds.) Women,
Immigration and Identities in France. pp. 171- 188.
Assignment: Watch the film “Memoires d’Immigrées” by Yamina Benguigui
(1997), (Part I, Part II and III, 50 min each)
Nov 15
The “Sans Papier” Movement (Discussion of film and readings or Student
Presentation?)
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Freedman, Jane. 2003. The Development of Immigration Policy in a
European Context. In: Immigration and Insecurity in France. pp. 31-53.
Freedman, Jane and Carrie Tarr. 2000. The Sans-Papières: An Interview
with Madjiguène Cissé. In: Women, Immigration and Identities in France.
pp. 29- 38.
Waters, Sarah. 2003. Right for all Immigrants: the sans-papiers. In: Social
Mouvements in France. Towards a New Citizenship. 82-94.
Freedman, Jane. 2003. The Sans-Papiers Movement: Mobilization through
Illegality. In: (ed.) Immigration and Insecurity in France. pp. 71-87.
Filmscreening : “Nous-Sans Papiers de France” 1997, (10.mins)
Nov 17
Re/Presenting the Banlieue (Discussion of readings)
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Stovall, Tyler. 2003. From Red Belt to Black Belt. Race, Class and Urban
Marginality in Twentieth-Century Paris. In: Peabody, Sue and Tyler Stovall
(eds.) The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France. pp. 361- 369.
Cooper, Frederick 2009. Fom Imperial Inclusion to Republican Exclusion?
France’s Ambiguous Potswar Trajectory. In: Charles Tshimanga et.al (eds.)
Frenchness and the African Diaspora. Identity and Uprising in
Contemporary France. pp. 91 – 117.
Boubeker Ahmed 2009. Outsiders in the French Melting Pot: The Public
Construction of Invisibility for Visible Minorities. In: Charles Tshimanga
et.al (eds.) Frenchness and the African Diaspora. Identity and Uprising in
Contemporary France. pp. 70-88.
Assignment: Response Paper due Nov. 22nd!
Nov 22
The 2005 Uprisings in the French Banlieues (Discussion of readings and film)
Lapeyronnie, Didier 2009. Primitive Rebellion in the French Banlieues: On
the Fall 2005 Riots. In: Charles Tshimanga et.al (eds.) Frenchness and the
African Diaspora. Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France. pp. 21- 46
- Mbembe, Achille 2009 The Republic and Its Beast: On the Riots in the
French Banlieues. In: Charles Tshimanga et.al (eds.) Frenchness and the
African Diaspora. Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France. pp. 47 54
Filmscreening: “365 Jours à Clichy Montfermeil” by Ladj Ly (20 mins.)
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Assignment: Response paper due Nov. 29 !
Thanksgiving break – no classes
Diverse Nation(s)? Claiming Black and Beur Identity in the French Republic
Nov 29
Colonization, Citizenship and Containment (Discussion of Readings)
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Dec 1
Les Indigènes de la République and the Conseil Représentatif des Associations
Noires (CRAN) (Student Presentation or discussion of readings)
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Dec 6
Camus, Jean-Yves. 2006. The Commemoration of Slavery in France and the
Emergence of a Black Political Consciousness. In: The European Legacy, Vol
11, No.6. pp. 647-655.
Vergès, Francoise 2006. The African Slave Trade and Slavery. Blind Spots in
French Thought. In: european institute for progressive cultural policies
(eipcp): http://eipcp.net/transversal/1206/verges/en
Bernault, Florence 2009. Colonial Syndrome: French Modern and the
Deceptions of History. In: Charles Tshimanga et.al (eds.) Frenchness and
the African Diaspora. Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France. pp.
120-145.
A Call to Action: „We are the Natives of the Republic!“ January 18,2005 In:
Charles Tshimanga et.al (eds.) Frenchness and the African Diaspora.
Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France. pp.277-281
Frenchness and Race in the Uniting of Europe
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Dec 8
Gondola, Didier 2009. The Othering and Indigenization of Blacks and Beurs
within the French Republic. In: Charles Tshimanga et.al (eds.) Frenchness
and the African Diaspora. Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France.
pp.146 – 166
Achille, Mbembe 2009. Figures of Multiplicity: Can France Reinvent Its
Identity? In: Charles Tshimanga et.al (eds.) Frenchness and the African
Diaspora. Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France. pp.55 – 69.
El-Tayeb, Fatima. 2008. The Birth of a European Public: Migration,
Postnationality, and Race in the Uniting of Europe. In: American Quarterly
- Volume 60, Number 3, September 2008, pp. 649-670.
Balibar, Étienne. 2004. Droit de Cité or Apartheid? In: We, the people of
Europe? Reflections of Transnational Citizenship. pp. 31-51.
Final Discussion