FREN 345 - Censorship in Francophone Africa: Film, Literature and Popular Music

This course provides an overview of censorship issues in Francophone African film, literature, and popular music. Students embark on a historical journey through the colonial period (1934 Laval Decree and its various amendments), the post-independence era of heavy-handed, autocratic censorship (bans, seizures, detention, exile or plain assassination), and the contemporary context of digital censorship (trolling, doxing, internet shutdowns). To supplement course material, students will be given ample opportunity to speak about current censorship issues with filmmakers, festival organizers, writers, editors, musical performers and producers. Assignments and activities include library research on individual or group projects, short presentations in class or on Voice Thread, a Moodle course journal, and a final comprehensive quiz to assess general knowledge of the texts, films, images, and musical records discussed or screened during the semester. Students will also write one short midterm paper on the differential regimes of censorship applied to literary texts and cinematographic images during colonial rule, and, as a final paper, an argumentative essay on a topic of their choice - in consultation with the instructor. Prerequisite(s): FREN 204 Offered occasionally. (4 Credits)