Empire of Language , livre ebook

Cornell University Press - Laurent Dubreuil ,
traduit par David Fieni

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249 pages

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The relationship between power and language has been a central theme in critical theory for decades now, yet there is still much to be learned about the sheer force of language in the world in which we live. In Empire of Language, Laurent Dubreuil explores the power-language phenomenon in the context of European and, particularly, French colonialism and its aftermath. Through readings of the colonial experience, he isolates a phraseology based on possession, in terms of both appropriation and haunting, that has persisted throughout the centuries. Not only is this phraseology a legacy of the past, it is still active today, especially in literary renderings of the colonial experience—but also, and more paradoxically, in anticolonial discourse. This phrase shaped the teaching of European languages in the (former) empires, and it tried to configure the usage of those idioms by the "Indigenes." Then, scholarly disciplines have to completely reconsider their discursive strategies about the colonial, if, at least, they attempt to speak up.Dubreuil ranges widely in terms of time and space, from the ancien régime through the twentieth century, from Paris to Haiti to Quebec, from the Renaissance to the riots in the banlieues. He examines diverse texts, from political speeches, legal documents, and colonial treatises to anthropological essays, poems of the Négritude, and contemporary rap, ever attuned to the linguistic strategies that undergird colonial power. Equally conversant in both postcolonial criticism and poststructuralist scholarship on language, but also deeply grounded in the sociohistorical context of the colonies, Dubreuil sets forth the conditions for an authentically postcolonial scholarship, one that acknowledges the difficulty of getting beyond a colonialism—and still maintains the need for an afterward.

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Publié par	Cornell University Press
Date de parution	15 mai 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780801467516
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,2200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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EMPIRE OF LANGUAGE

EMPIREOFLANGUAGE

TOWARD A CRI T I QUE OF ( POST ) COLONI AL E XPRESSI ON

Da u r e nt L u b r e u i l TranslatedfromtheFrenchbyDavidFieni

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Firstpublished2013byCornellUniversityPress

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dubreuil, Laurent, author. [Empire du langage. English] Empire of language : toward a critique of (post)colonial expression / Laurent Dubreuil ; translated from the French by David Fieni. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-5056-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. French literature—French-speaking countries—History and criticism. 2. French language—Political aspects. 3. Postcolonialism. 4. French-speaking countries— History. I. Fieni, David, translator. II. Dubreuil, Laurent. Empire du langage. Translation of: III. Title. PQ3897.D8313 2013 840.9'358—dc23 2012048481

CornellUniversityPressstrivestouseenvironmentallyresponsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

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10 98 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

ProloguePa r t O n e : P h r a s e o lo g i e s 1. (Post)colonial Possessions 2. Haunting and Imperial Doctrine 3. The Revenant Phrase Pa rt Tw o : G i v i n g L a n g u a g e s , Ta k i n g S p e e c h 4. The Languages of Empire 5. Interdiction within Diction 6. Today: Stigmata and Veils 7. Reinventing Francophonie Pa r t Th r e e : D i s c i p l i n i n g K n o w l e d g e 8. Formations and Reformations of Anthropology 9. The Impossible Colonial Science 10. Who Will Become a Theoretician?AftertheAfterward

Notes203 Bibliography219 Index231

1 13 15 36 57

81 83 102 119 129 145

147 159 181 197

EMPIREOFLANGUAGE

Prologue

Colonial!The word is everywhere. In newspa-pers, journals, and books; at conferences, lectures, and symposia. At times it seems as though the present has been invaded by the colonial past. And not just in Europe. What are we to make of the former colonial “possessions” that remain in thrall to an unresolved history, or to the nations of the Ameri-cas (from Brazil to the United States) that still resist complete repudiation of their former practices of domination? As for this most recent period of globalization, it sometimes feels as though we are currently experiencing the rebirth of the same imperialism that began in the Renaissance. And yet, while the colonial is being spoken of once again, the meaning and significance of the term are far from self-evident. In the virtual space that will be privileged throughout this book—that of “contemporary France,” whose very defini-tion is so problematic and uncertain—this recent clamor over colonization contrasts sharply with the combination of silence and deafness that imme-diately followed the great wars of independence in the previous century. A Parisian, interviewed by Chris Marker in his filmLe joli mai, would say of the moment in 1962 when the Evian Accords were signed, putting an end to the Algerian War: “Some events it’s best to keep quiet about” (Y a [des] 1 événements qu’il est préférable de se taire[sic]).For the interviewee to say this was an implicit acknowledgment of the necessity of censure, and the ana-coluthon in the sentence further suggests how deep the impulse was within

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