Postcolonial Thought in the French-Speaking World

In the late 1990s, Postcolonial Studies risked imploding as a credible area of academic enquiry. Repeated anthologisation and an overemphasis on English-language literature led to sustained critiques of the field and to an active search for alternative approaches to the globalised and transnational formations of the postcolonial world. In the early 21st century, however, it began to reveal a new openness to its comparative dimensions. French-language contributors to postcolonial debate have recently risen to greater prominence, and there have also appeared an increasing number of important critical and theoretical texts on postcolonial issues, written by scholars working principally on French-language material.