Modern notions of the author emerged within the Western context of legal and social regimes that excluded women, slaves, colonial subjects, and many non-nationals not only from the category of full citizenship but from authorship as well. That legacy remains with us in the contemporary postcolonial era. This workshop on Postcolonial Authorship will consider some of the current conditions and constraints on writers in the wake of colonialism and in the new imperial formations. What are the circumstances of production (reading, writing, and publishing) for postcolonial authors? How do postcolonial dynamics change the image of the author and the conception of authorship? How do the histories of colonialism and imperialism inflect the (im)possibilities of “World Literature” today?

Program

9h30 - Introduction, Joseph Slaughter and Gisèle Sapiro.

9h45 - Kissing the Book: Slavery, Colonialism, and the Creation of Black Literary Property, Joseph Slaughter (Columbia)

10h15 - Prizing francophone African Authors: Uneven Circuits of Consecration, Madeline Bedecarré (EHESS)

10h45 - Break.

11h00 - Postcolonial studies in France, Dominique Combe (ENS)

11h30 - Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur postcolonial?, Lydie Moudileno (University of Pennsylvania, visting professor at EHESS)

12h00 -  L’identité de l’"écrivain algérien" au prisme de la relation postcoloniale, Tristan Leperlier (EHESS, Paris 8)

12h30-13h00 - General discussion and conclusive remarks /Discussion générale et remarques conclusives.

 Co-organized by Joseph Slaughter (Columbia University) and Gisèle Sapiro (EHESS).