Poetics of Afroeuropean Mobilities in Francophone African Literatures

This project examines how Francophone African literatures from the mid-20th century to the present represent forms of human physical travel (e.g., pedestrianism, automobility, aeromobility, maritime travel, travel in public transport) in the wider context of different Afroeuropean mobilities: student mobilities, tourism and exploration, professional mobilities, criminal mobilities, return travel, and clandestine travel. The project asks what sorts of meanings the text material attaches to Afroeuropean mobilities, how mobility generates meanings of places, and how the theme of mobility translates into literary form.

The project produces new knowledge about the representation of mobility in Francophone African literatures in a way that pays attention to the evolution of the theme and its formal features throughout the period.  The project recognises Africans in Europe as mobile subjects and travellers, not only as migrants, and defines Europe as a postcolonial continent. It is through the intertwinement of mobility studies with postcolonial literary analysis that the project contributes to the renewal of science. The project also seeks to develop analytical tools for reading mobilities in literature.