The Sea as Archive: Oceanic Perspectives from Global South Islands
FRENCH 145
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This course proposes to shift our perspective from land to sea and to read the latter instead as archive and as history-making site. We will consider the ocean as an inventory of colonial and neocolonial fictions as well as a repository for histories of migratory fluxes (forced and coerced, i.e. slavery, indenture, blackbirding, current migrant crises), militarization and nuclearizaton, and climate crises. We will also explore the ocean’s potential for liberatory aesthetics and decolonial epistemologies. In brief, we will be reading from an oceanic perspective. Primary readings will include works by Maryse Condé, Édouard Glissant, Shenaz Patel, Kama La Mackerel, Nathacha Appanah, Khal Torabully, Chantal Spitz, Titaua Peu, Amitav Ghosh, NourbeSe Philip and Rita Indiana. These will be supplemented with secondary materials such as documentary films, colonial travel narratives, military and diplomatic cables, theoretical texts, and public essays.
Course Notes
This course will be taught in French.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
NOTE: This course requires additional sections; you will be prompted to choose secondary components during the Add to Cart process
