Postcolonizing the Commonwealth: Studies in Literature and Culture

3. Looking in from "Beyond": Commonwealth Studies in French Universities

3 Looking in from ‘‘Beyond’’: Commonwealth Studies in French Universities Jacqueline Bardolph . . . the valuable advice and information we have received from scores of individuals and institutions throughout the Commonwealth and beyond. — ‘‘Introduction’’ to the Report of the Commission on Commonwealth Studies, London, Commonwealth Secretariat (June 1996):9 In my reflection on Commonwealth studies in Europe and more particularly in France, I have found no help with the trinity of French thinkers, Derrida, Lacan and Foucault, not to mention Kristeva and Irigaray. I did find some theoretical guidance though: I have been thinking along the lines of what the stimulating sociologist Pierre Bourdieu defines as ‘‘un champ littéraire,’’ a literary field: such a field is the locus of fertile tensions between sociohistorical economic factors and literary creation. He analyzes the way the combination of publishing conditions, the nature of a given reading public and institutional powers, can not only facilitate works of art, but also grant them legitimacy, through academic recognition and through the conferring of sundry prizes and distinctions. This context can be a determining factor for a majority of works, accounting for their aesthetic and imaginary choices as well as for their explicit or implicit 39 ideology; yet the movement is not consistent since some major works, by being inventive or transgressive, can modify the field and create new conditions for creation. In a conference I recently attended in Brussels, Africanists reflected on the various literary fields, national and international, that both define and are defined by African literatures , in French and in English. The debate was fruitful. Looking now at the relationship between European universities and Commonwealth literature, I have come across several questions: what is the interaction , if any, between writers from the Commonwealth and a body of scholars from a non-Commonwealth background, with a different working language? Are such academics intermediaries between new literatures and the reading public of the old continent? Are they mere outsiders, watching with a certain detachment the new production and the whole critical debate on postcolonial theories which has originated in North America and the old Commonwealth? Is there a two-way dialogue between research issuing from within the countries once linked by the British Empire, and those that have a different historical past, a different language? Any cross-fertilization? What kind of future will be made possible for such research by the academic institutions and publishing conditions? I shall base my reflections on the example of France, with comparisons with other European countries—Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, whose situations I know best. I shall not include Great Britain or Ireland , where the conditions are altogether different. Yes, different because one has to keep in mind that, in all the countries I have chosen, English is not the mother tongue and has no official status. It is taught in schools and universities as a very privileged second language, a stronger status than French or Spanish would have in Canada. But most adults after their school days are reluctant to speak it. English or American books are difficult to get hold of, even in big cities, Australian novels more so, and in France banks will not pay your bills for books from Kenya, having next to no contact with some Englishspeaking countries—their network is Francophone. Academics teach literature in language departments, a permanently threatened portion of a syllabus that also features translation, linguistics and cultural studies . In a ‘‘bold’’ move in the 1970s the field of American studies was created, and some departments are reluctant to share the precious time devoted to the two cultural areas with a newcomer called ‘‘Commonwealth ’’ or ‘‘New Literatures’’—‘‘When one thinks they have not read Milton!’’ One must also remember that, unlike German or Italian, 40 Postcolonizing the Commonwealth: Studies in Literature and Culture English as a second language is increasingly sought as langue du pain— a passport to a job—and not as a vehicle representing one or several cultures. Some smaller universities find it difficult to maintain a distinction in curricula and audiences between English for culture and commercial English. A specialist in Canadian or Indian authors may well have to teach translation or business English, or English to chemists, until the day when he or she can have access to part-time or, rarely, full-time teaching of Commonwealth literature. Never full-time on his or her chosen topic or author, as would be the case if he...