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Beschreibung
The French slave trade forced more than one million Africans across the Atlantic to the islands of the Caribbean. It enabled France to establish Saint-Domingue, the single richest colony on earth, and it connected France, Africa, and the Caribbean permanently. Yet the impact of the slave trade on the cultures of France and its colonies has received surprisingly little attention. Until recently, France had not publicly acknowledged its history as a major slave-trading power. The distinguished scholar Christopher L. Miller proposes a thorough assessment of the French slave trade and its cultural ramifications, in a broad, circum-Atlantic inquiry. This magisterial work is the first comprehensive examination of the French Atlantic slave trade and its consequences as represented in the history, literature, and film of France and its former colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.

Miller offers a historical introduction to the cultural and economic dynamics of the French slave trade, and he shows how Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire mused about the enslavement of Africans, while Rousseau ignored it. He follows the twists and turns of attitude regarding the slave trade through the works of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century French writers, including Olympe de Gouges, Madame de StaËl, Madame de Duras, Prosper MÉrimÉe, and EugÈne Sue. For these authors, the slave trade was variously an object of sentiment, a moral conundrum, or an entertaining high-seas “adventure.” Turning to twentieth-century literature and film, Miller describes how artists from Africa and the Caribbean-including the writers AimÉ CÉsaire, Maryse CondÉ, and Edouard Glissant, and the filmmakers Ousmane Sembene, Guy Deslauriers, and Roger Gnoan M’Bala-have confronted the aftermath of France’s slave trade, attempting to bridge the gaps between silence and disclosure, forgetfulness and memory.

The French slave trade forced more than one million Africans across the Atlantic to the islands of the Caribbean. It enabled France to establish Saint-Domingue, the single richest colony on earth, and it connected France, Africa, and the Caribbean permanently. Yet the impact of the slave trade on the cultures of France and its colonies has received surprisingly little attention. Until recently, France had not publicly acknowledged its history as a major slave-trading power. The distinguished scholar Christopher L. Miller proposes a thorough assessment of the French slave trade and its cultural ramifications, in a broad, circum-Atlantic inquiry. This magisterial work is the first comprehensive examination of the French Atlantic slave trade and its consequences as represented in the history, literature, and film of France and its former colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.

Miller offers a historical introduction to the cultural and economic dynamics of the French slave trade, and he shows how Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire mused about the enslavement of Africans, while Rousseau ignored it. He follows the twists and turns of attitude regarding the slave trade through the works of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century French writers, including Olympe de Gouges, Madame de StaËl, Madame de Duras, Prosper MÉrimÉe, and EugÈne Sue. For these authors, the slave trade was variously an object of sentiment, a moral conundrum, or an entertaining high-seas “adventure.” Turning to twentieth-century literature and film, Miller describes how artists from Africa and the Caribbean-including the writers AimÉ CÉsaire, Maryse CondÉ, and Edouard Glissant, and the filmmakers Ousmane Sembene, Guy Deslauriers, and Roger Gnoan M’Bala-have confronted the aftermath of France’s slave trade, attempting to bridge the gaps between silence and disclosure, forgetfulness and memory.

Über den Autor

Christopher L. Miller is Frederick Clifford Ford Professor of African American Studies and French at Yale University. He is the author of Nationalists and Nomads: Essays on Francophone African Literature and Culture; Theories of Africans: Francophone Literature and Anthropology in Africa; and Blank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in French.

Inhaltsverzeichnis
Preface ix
Abbreviations xv
Part One. The French Atlantic
1. Introduction 3
2. Around the Triangle 40
3. The Slave Trade in the Enlightenment 62
4. The Veeritions of History 83
Part Two. French Women Writers: Revolution, Abolitionist Translation, Sentiment (1783-1823)
5. Gendering Abolitionism 99
6. Olympe de Gouges, "Earwitness to the Ills of America" 109
7. Madame de Stael, Mirza, and Pauline: Atlantic Memories 141
8. Duras and Her Ourika, "The Ultimate House Slave" 158
Conclusion to Part Two 174
Part Three. French Male Writers:Restoration, Abolition, Entertainment
9. Tamango around the Atlantic: Concatenations of Revolt 179
10. Forget haiti: Baron Roger and the New Africa 246
11. Homosociality, Reckoning, and Recognition in Eugene Sue's Atar-Gull 274
12. Edouard Corbiere, "Mating," and Maritime Adventure 300
Part Four. The Triangle from "Below"
13. Cesaire, Glissant, Conde: Reimagining the Atlantic 325
14. African "Silence" 364
Conclusion: Reckoning, Reparation, and the Value of Fictions 385
Notes 391
Bibliography 527
Index 547
Details
Erscheinungsjahr: 2008
Genre: Importe
Rubrik: Sozialwissenschaften/Recht/Wirtschaft
Medium: Taschenbuch
Inhalt: Einband - flex.(Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780822341512
ISBN-10: 0822341514
Sprache: Englisch
Einband: Kartoniert / Broschiert
Autor: Miller, Christopher L
Hersteller: Duke University Press
Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, D-36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr@libri.de
Maße: 236 x 157 x 31 mm
Von/Mit: Christopher L Miller
Erscheinungsdatum: 11.01.2008
Gewicht: 0,827 kg
Artikel-ID: 101891469