At the Limits of Memory: Legacies of Slavery in the Francophone World(6 Francophone Postcolonial Studies)

Recent years have seen a growing body of literature dedicated to memories of slavery in the Anglophone world, yet little has been done to approach this subject from Francophone perspectives. This collection responds to the urgent need to contribute to current research on slavery and memory studies by focusing specifically on the Francophone world. Featuring the scholarship of leading academics in France, Britain, the United States and Canada, the collection reflects upon contemporary commemorative practices that relate to the history of slavery and the slave trade, and questions how they function in relationship to other, less memorialized histories of exploitation, such as indentured and forced labour. The volume is set against the context of France’s growing body of memory legislation, as well as its close cultural and political connections to its former empire, all of which make it an influential player in how slavery continues to be memorialized and conceptualized in the public sphere. Contributors retrace and redraw the narrative map of slavery and its legacies in the Francophone world through a comparative understanding of how these different, but interconnected forms of labour exploitation have been remembered and/or forgotten from European, West African, Indian Ocean and Caribbean perspectives.

Table of Contents:
1. Nicola Frith and Kate Hodgson, ‘Slavery and its Legacies: Remembering Labour Exploitation in the Francophone World’ Part One: The Limits of Memorialization: Commemoration, Musealization and Patrimony 2. Christine Chivallon, ‘Representing the Slave Past: The Limits of Museographical and Patrimonial Discourses’ 3. Catherine Reinhardt, ‘Telling Stories of Slavery: Cultural Re-appropriations of Slave Memory in the French Caribbean Today’ 4. Nicola Frith, ‘The Art of Reconciliation: The Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes’ 5. Renaud Hourcade, ‘Shaping Representations of the Past in a Former Slave-Trade Port: Slavery Remembrance Day (10 May) in Nantes’ 6. Kate Hodgson, ‘Haiti and the Memorial Discourses of Slavery After 1804’ Part Two: Beyond the Abolitionist Moment: Memories and Counter-Memories of Labour Exploitation 7. Charles Forsdick, ‘Cette île n’est pas une île: Situating Gorée’ 8. Srilata Ravi, ‘Multiple Memories: Slavery and Indenture in Mauritian Literature in French’ 9. Sotonye Omuku, ‘Speaking of Slavery: Representations of Domestic Slavery in the Oral Epics of Francophone West Africa’ 10. Inès Mrad Dali, ‘From Forgetting to Remembrance: Slavery and Forced Labour in Tunisia’ 11. Claire Griffiths, ‘Imaging the Present: An Iconography of Slavery in Contemporary African Art’ 12. Françoise Vergès, Cartographies of Memory, Politics of Emancipation Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Nicola Frith is a Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Kate Hodgson is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in French at the University of Liverpool.

Review :
Reviews 'Given the recent explosion in studies of the memories of the slave trade and the recent efforts of France to include the history of slavery in its national history, the book highlights the blind spots that have marked public memory of slavery and slavery commemorations not only in France but also in countries that have historical bonds with French colonial history.' Fabienne Viala, Slavery & Abolition 'Overall, the volume is highly innovative, sophisticated and engaging... The book will provide rewarding reading not only to specialists in memory and in French colonialism, but also to those interested in contemporary French culture more generally.' H-France Review At the Limits of Memory is fascinating...it will provide rewarding reading not only to specialists in memory and in French colonialism, but also to those interested in contemporary French culture more generally. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, H-France Review