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Michel S. Laronde

Professor
email Michel Laronde
563 Phillips Hall
335-2264

Selected Publications

My main research interests, teaching responsibilities and publications are in the domain of the postcolonial literatures and cinema from France, represented mostly by immigration from North- and subSaharan Africa. An area of global transit for postcolonial subjects and cross-cultural encounters, the literatures and cultures of (im)migration and exile include all sorts of practices that modify 21st-century France as well as the diverse cultures of the Francophone world.

Postcolonialiser la Haute Culture à l’Ecole de la République (2008) studies how postcolonial subjects in France reinterpret references to classical literary models used in school to teach language and values. This process of an ongoing evolution of the Culture of the Nation is approached through studies of immigration literature and postcolonial cinema.

I have also edited two volumes of articles by international scholars. L'Ecriture décentrée. La langue de l’Autre dans le roman contemporain (1996) follows the evolution of the fiction of immigration in France and addresses questions of style and language, narratology and discourse analysis in postcolonial novels. Leïla Sebbar (2003) presents studies on the fiction of this prolific and influential French author born in Algeria, again by a team of international scholars. My contribution is a substantial introduction and complete bio-bibliography.

Autour du roman beur. Immigration et identité (1993) is a seminal book that studies the identity of second- and third generation “North Africans” in France through the presentation of their literary output in the 1980s, called roman beur.

I have articles in journals such as International journal of Francophone Studies, Nottingham French Studies, Etudes Francophones, French Literature Series, Le Maghreb littéraire, and chapters in several books. I was on the editorial board of Le Maghreb littéraire and I regularly review articles for Nouvelles Etudes Francophones, Research in African Literature and university presses here and abroad.

Recent courses

Because migrations are at the crossroads of global and specific historical and linguistic situations, past and future imaginations of France and the French-speaking world are present in all my courses.

009:168/048:168 Postcolonial Literatures in France, an introduction to the literature and cinema of post-immigration generations from North African and sub-Saharan origins, follows the evolution of the 1980s roman beur and the rise of Afro-French culture in the 1990s (upper undergraduate / graduate course, last taught in Spring 2010)
009:178 Topics: Algérie française! Al Djazaïr! Algériance combines a multiple approach to explore the war of independence in Algeria in relation to colonial memory/ies and postcolonial History (new upper undergraduate / graduate course first taught in Spring 2009)
009:225, Literature of Immigration in France presents the field through texts and films, explores new socio-cultural and literary situations, offers interpretive and theoretical models to understand issues of post(-)coloniality within France (advanced graduate course last taught Fall 2008)

I regularly teach "Quebecois literature", that focuses on the culture, literature and cinema of Quebec, and courses on Translation and Comparative Stylistics. I work with students and colleagues in France and other Francophone countries. Graduate students in the department have worked with me on Contemporary/Postcolonial France, North African, West African, and immigration literatures, cultures and cinema.

Recent PhDs (as director)

“Three Francophone Writers from East Africa. William J.F. Syad, Daher Ahmed Farah, and Abdourahman A. Waberi : Caravaners of Words” (Garane Garane, 2007)
“L’appropriation de l’Histoire dans quelques romans francophones africains et caribéens” (Nehemiah Anzah, 2006)
“L’initiation dans le roman et le cinéma francophones de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et de la Caraïbe” (Amadou Ouédraogo, 2006)
“L’inscription du Code noir dans les littératures francophones coloniales et son évolution dans les littératures postcoloniales de la diaspora” (Joseph Diémé, 2006)