This module will focus on four postcolonial French narratives of colonial lives in Vietnam (Duras), Indian Ocean and Cameroon/Nigeria (Le Clézio), Tunisia (Fellous) and the Caribbean (Condé). Students should have a reading knowledge of French, as some of the discussion will be in French and as the study of language, including of 'untranslatability' will be central to the way that we will read the set works. However, the prescribed works and much of the secondary reading material are available in English, so the constituency will by no means be limited to students of French. The purpose of the course is to focus on how the colonies and colonial life are represented in the four late 20th, or early 21st century works. Questions of identity, power and freedom will lie at the heart of the reading of the four works, as will issues of race, language, place, community and gender. A variety of critical approaches will be central to the discussion, as will the specificity of postcolonial discourse, both literary and theoretical, in French. The module's focus will be broadened by contributions from several visiting speakers and by several film screenings.