Postcolonial Francospheres: Reharmonising the French Canon

Please note that this event has been rescheduled from 28 February 2023 to 13 March 2023. 

About this event

This event is part of the "FRICTION: French Research in Culture Theory and Imagination" seminar series, which sets out to explore the latest research in French Studies, promoting the rub between disciplines and practices that are enriching the field.

Going beyond the dichotomy between French and Francophone, as well as the postcolonial theory of contrapuntal reading, derived from Western classical music, this presentation by Dr Rebekah Vince (Queen Mary University of London) proposes reharmonisation as a jazz metaphor for rewriting, and writing around, the French canon within postcolonial literary francospheres.

Speaker - Doctor Rebekah Vince

Dr Rebekah Vince is a performance poet, translator, and lecturer in French at Queen Mary University of London. Previously she was a teaching fellow in French at Durham University and an early career fellow at the University of Warwick, where she completed her PhD in 2018. She is the editor of the bilingual journal Francosphères and co-editor of Jewish-Muslim Interactions: Performing Cultures between North Africa and France (with Dr Samuel Sami Everett). Her essay 'Music of the Francospheres' was jointly awarded the 75th anniversary French Studies essay prize on the future of French Studies, alongside Dr Sura Qadiri's essay 'The Future is in the Making'.