Course module LET-RTCBF217 Credits (ECTS) 5 Category - Language of instruction French Offered by Radboud University; Faculty of Arts; Romance Languages and Cultures; Lecturer(s) Coordinator prof. dr. A.C. Montoya Other course modules lecturer Lecturer prof. dr. A.C. Montoya Other course modules lecturer Contactperson for the course prof. dr. A.C. Montoya Other course modules lecturer Examiner prof. dr. A.C. Montoya Other course modules lecturer Academic year 2021 Period PER 3-PER 4   (31/01/2022 to 30/08/2022) Starting block PER 3 Course mode full-time Remarks - Registration using OSIRIS Yes Course open to students from other faculties Yes Pre-registration No Waiting list No Placement procedure -

	Aims At the end of the course, the student: • is able to reproduce the most important information regarding the history of, and literary representations of migration from the Mediterranen world to France • is able to explain and apply basic analytic concepts (postcolonial, narratological) to contemporary Francophone migrant texts;   • is able to interpret these productions within their historical, cultural and political context (also taking into account power inequalities in the French-speaking world); • is able to explain how these kinds of novels have contributed to debates on migration; • is able to present a sound analysis of a specific topic of their own choice regarding French-language migrant literature.   Content ‘The migrant novel in French’ examines a series of novels from the French-speaking world (in English translation, or in French for students who prefer to read them in the orignal) dealing with migration. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed geopolitical crises and mass migration due to conflict, (post-)colonial war, and wie-ranging economic, political and climate upheaval. There is a long tradition of writing experiences of displacement and migration in French, including travel writing to the colonies, North African ‘beur-literature’ in France in the 1980s, and novels addressing the 21st-century ‘migration crisis’ in Europe and elsewhere. Published between the 1950s and the present, the novels studied during this course are set in various contexts, often narrated through diverse perspectives, but all focus specifically on the Mediterrnean world in the largest sense (Lebanon, Maghreb and the Sahara, France) with its particularly long, complex history of cultural interactions. Adopting a broad historical context, we will ask how these representations of migration relate to (and problematize) the legacy of the French colonial ‘mission civilisatrice’, as well as French ideals of universalism, cultural coexistence, and the role of the French language itself in establishing and consolidating unequal power relations. We further address distinctions between categories such as traveller, exile, refugee, migrant, and tourist, within the history of mobility and migration from the colonial period until the ‘postcolonial’ present day. Deploying various narratological and postcolonial perspectives on migrant novels, finally, we explore the possibilities and limitations of the novel as genre in creating and contesting concepts of ‘nation’, ‘home’, ‘exile’, ‘mobility’ and notions of displacement (linguistic, cultural) in the broadest sense. How do these novels, in short, help nuance current debates on migration, specifically as it relates to the French-Meiterranean world?   Level Presumed foreknowledge Test information Specifics The course will be taught in English, and all texts are available in English. However, French students are encouraged to read the primary texts in French. Should students wish, and should their language proficiency allow it, the course may also be taught (partly) in French. Assumed previous knowledge Note for exchange students: you cannot take this course if your French proficiency level is not at least B1/B2.
	Required materials Book J.M.G. Le Clézio, Desert, trans. C. Dickson, Boston, Verba Mundi, 2011 (French original: Désert, Folio, 1987) ISBN : 978-1567923872 Costs : 20.00 Book Albert Memmi, The Pillar of Salt, Beacon Press, 1992, ISBN 978-0807083277 (French original: La statue de sel, Folio, 1972, ISBN 978-2070362066) ISBN : 978-0807083277 Costs : 18.00 Book Assia Djebar, So vast the prison, trans. Betsy Wing, Seven Stories Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1583220672 (French original: Vaste est la prison, Livre de Poche, 1992, ISBN 978-2253152224) ISBN : 978-1583220672 Costs : 17.00 Book Nina Bouraoui, Tomboy, trans. Jehanne-Marie Gavarini, Bison Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0803262591 (French original: Garçon manqué, Livre de Poche, 2002, ISBN 978-2253152545) Costs : 19.50 Articles Secondary literature will be accessible on Brightspace. Book Tahar ben Jelloun, Leaving Tangier, trans. Linda Coverdale, Penguin, 2009, ISBN 978-0143114659 (French original: Partir, Folio, 2007, ISBN 978-2070344314) ISBN : 978-0143114659 Costs : 15.00 Book Amin Maalouf, The disoriented, trans. Frank Wynne, World Editions, 2020, ISBN 978-1642860580 (French original: Les déorientés, Livre de Poche, 2014, ISBN 978-2253174813) ISBN : 978-1642860580 Costs : 14.99 Instructional modes Lecture / Seminar Attendance Mandatory Yes Tests Written Exam 1 Test weight 25 Test type Written exam Opportunities Block PER 3, Block PER 4 Minimum grade 5,5 Written Exam 2 Test weight 25 Test type Written exam Opportunities Block PER 4, Block PER 4 Minimum grade 5,5 Paper Test weight 50 Test type Project Opportunities Block PER 4 Minimum grade 5,5