IL_Spring2024_Lesson5_Mitchell_Async

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Apr 3, 2024

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IL 201-05 Inside France: Paris, Capital of the World Robin Mitchell’s Vénus Noire PLEASE COMPLETE AND SUBMIT BY THE END OF THE DAY, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8 th 2024. Homework for next week: For Tuesday, February 13 th Review: Mitchell, Robin. Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth- Century France . o Introduction: "Black Women in the French Imaginary" (pages 1 to 17) o Chapter 1, " The Tale of Three Women: The Biographies" (pages 19 to 30) o Chapter 3, "Ourika Mania: Cultural Consumption of (Dis) Remembered Blackness" (pages 81-103) Write for Thursday, February 15th: Write: Bring first draft and outline of paper #1 to class. For Monday, February 19th: Paper #1 due by midnight Objectives: Discuss Claire de Duras’s novella Ourika within the framework provided by Professor Mitchell’s analysis in Vénus Noire I. Professor Mitchell’s Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth- Century France a. Listen to Professor Mitchell’s lecture (4 parts, approximately 45 minutes total) and write down three key take-aways that you might be able to use in your paper: You can view the videos on Moodle (WEEK 4: Ourika; Le Chevalier (February 6th-8th), Professor Mitchell Lecture) or in our share google drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j_5G_6v3ZVYxN8ON6GEaJpObW1kg4wif?usp=drive_link ) i. The French culture is often romanticized. People usually ignore or are not aware of it’s not so great history. ii. French history usually erases or tries to downplay the experiences of black people throughout the years. iii. Women, especially black women, are usually treated as the “other”. b. What do we know about the historical Ourika (1781-1799)? [pages 21-30] Ourika was born in Senegal, West Africa, and was of African descent. She was brought to France as a young child and was raised by the de Beauvoir family, a wealthy French family. Ourika was enslaved but was treated more like a member of the de Beauvoir family than a typical slave. She received an education, which was highly unusual for a person of African descent in that time period. Ourika fell in love with Charles, the son of the de Beauvoir family. However, due to societal norms and racial prejudices of the time, Charles could not reciprocate her love, leading to Ourika experiencing deep anguish and heartbreak. Ourika's life ended tragically at a young age. She died in a convent in 1799. c. What are three key points that you got out of reading Professor Mitchell’s analysis of France’s historical context during and after the French Revolution?
i. Mitchell addresses the challenges France faced in the aftermath of the Revolution, including the struggle to establish a stable government, rebuild society, and reconcile the diverse interests and factions that emerged during and after the revolutionary period. ii. The significance of socioeconomic disparities and class conflict as driving forces behind the French Revolution. iii. Mitchell discusses how the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity profoundly influenced not only France but also reverberated across Europe and the world. d. Explain the following quotes: Even today, many French leaders seem eager to separate their country’s history from slavery and the slave trade, imperial endeavors that contributed greatly to its economic survival and prestige (17). The quote suggests that even in contemporary times, there's a tendency among French leaders to downplay or ignore the significant role that slavery and the slave trade played in France's history. This denial might stem from a desire to distance the nation's modern identity from the morally reprehensible aspects of its past. Duras’s novel marks the first known appearance of a black female protagonist in European literature, presenting her as a sympathetic figure during a time when blacks were rarely considered in that light. Yet the novel also provides a vehicle that enables Duras to explore her anger and disappointment regarding the French and the Haitian Revolutions by displacing those stinging words into the mouth of a black character (87). The quote acknowledges the groundbreaking nature of Duras's novel by highlighting that it features a black female protagonist, which was a highly unusual and pioneering depiction in European literature at the time. This protagonist is portrayed sympathetically, which was a departure from the prevailing stereotypes and biases against black individuals prevalent during the period when the novel was written. Referring to the massacres of French soldiers and settlers allowed Ourika to verbalize the barbarity of blacks in Saint-Domingue and kept that discussion within blackness so that similar atrocities committed by whites remained invisible (90). The quote alludes to the historical events known as the Saint-Domingue massacres, which occurred during the Haitian Revolution. These massacres involved violence against French soldiers and settlers by enslaved Africans and free people of color who revolted against colonial rule. For all practical purposes, Duras creates a version of Ourika who is a Frenchwoman: she receives exactly the same upbringing that Mme. de B. would have provided a white daughter. This construction went against the prevailing ideology of the time, which held that blacks were inferior to whites and could never be more than slaves. Instead, Ourika’s trajectory initially suggests that blacks’ progress was impaired not by their blackness but by lack of opportunity. But Duras then reverses course, showing that blackness indeed places Ourika among the outcasts, trumping any other factor and meaning that she can never become truly French. Similarly, Duras’s Ourika can only be fulfilled within the stable gender boundaries of marriage and motherhood (90). Duras constructs the character of Ourika in a way that gives her a similar upbringing to what a white daughter of a French aristocrat would have received. This portrayal defies the prevalent belief at the time that blacks were inherently inferior to whites and could never attain the same status or opportunities. By presenting Ourika as essentially French in her upbringing, Duras challenges racial stereotypes and prejudices. The fictional Ourikas thus had to either leave France or die: their continued existence in the metropole meant uncontained blackness, the consequences of which included such violations of the tenets of authentic Frenchness as interracial marriage and miscegenation. Moreover, the Ourikas had to choose to remove themselves so that their departures were not the fault of France
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