FRN 313 - French Theatre of Resistance

1 course unit

Theater in the French Caribbean (with a focus on Martinique and Guadeloupe) has evolved from servile reproduction of European norms and texts by the béké (white colonist) ruling class in colonial times to a vibrant, multicultural, and decolonizing practice in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries when the islands became administrative departments of France. This class will examine both plays written by French- and Creole-speaking Caribbean playwrights (in English translation) and theoretical works by Black Caribbean intellectuals which will serve as historical and philosophical context for our close readings. We will interrogate the intersections of language (colonial French vs Creole), gender, politics and colonial history with the aesthetic and cultural traditions that inform contemporary French- and French-Creole-speaking Caribbean theater: the creole storytelling tradition, the European cultural patrimony, the Black Liberation and Civil Rights movements in the USA, as well as certain African theatrical and cultural practices. Readings will include Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism and A Tempest, Ina Césaire’s Island Memories, Maryse Condé’s The Tropical Breeze Hotel, Gerty Dambury’s Trames, Simone Schwarz-Bart’s Your Handsome Captain, Edouard Glissant’s Caribbean Discourse, and In Praise of Creoleness by Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphaël Confiant. In English.
Meets general academic requirement HU.