We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Mercer Cook and the Origins of Black French Studies.
- Authors
Germain, Félix
- Abstract
In the 1930s, when scholars from both sides of the Atlantic did not see Frenchness and blackness as mutually-inclusive categories, Mercer Cook, a prolific African-American scholar and diplomat, laid the foundations of black French studies. His scholarship on black subjects in France and its colonies was both expository and critical. Unlike his contemporaries, he refused to let racism and ethnocentrism taint his research. He inscribed black intellectual life and black experience into the historical narrative of France, and he did so from the perspective of an outsider with insider connections. As an American, he distinguished himself from black authors and intellectuals from France and its former colonies, who typically injected a strong dose of political activism into their novels, poems, and essays. Simultaneously, the close friendships he maintained with African, Caribbean, and black French authors influenced his understanding of what we would now call black France.
- Subjects
FRANCE; COOK, Mercer; BLACK French people; AFRICAN American historians; INTELLECTUAL history; HISTORY; TWENTIETH century; HISTORIOGRAPHY
- Publication
French Politics, Culture & Society, 2016, Vol 34, Issue 1, p153
- ISSN
1537-6370
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3167/fpcs.2016.340111