New Generation Thinkers: Colonial Papers
In September 1956, the journal Pr茅sence Africaine staged a conference at the Sorbonne attended by James Baldwin amongst others. Alex Reza's Essay looks at politics then and now.
The First Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris 1956 staged debates about colonial history which are still playing out in the protests of the Gilets Noirs. New Generation Thinker Alexandra Reza leafs through the pages of the journal Pr茅sence Africaine, and picks out a short story by Ousmane Semb猫ne, tracing the dreams of a young woman from Senegal. Her experiences are echoed in a new experimental patchwork of writing by Nathalie Quintane called Les Enfants Vont Bien. And what links all of these examples is the idea of papers, cahiers, and identity documents.
Producer: Emma Wallace
Alexandra Reza researches post-colonial literature at the University of Oxford. You can hear her in a Free Thinking discussion about Aim茅 C茅saire /programmes/m000nmxf
She also appears alongside Tariq Ali and Kehinde Andrews in a discussion Frantz Fanon's Writing /programmes/m000tdtn
And in a Free Thinking episode looking at the fiction of Maryse Cond茅 /programmes/m000v86y
She is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by 大象传媒 Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select academics to turn their research into radio.
Featured in...
New Research—Free Thinking
Will Hutton, Lucy O鈥橞rien, Richard Sennett on how topics are taught + campus free speech?
Podcast
-
Arts & Ideas
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives.