Researcher(s):
Lauren Scott
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2015 Completed: Go to project site
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This is the project record for my senior capstone project. This will take the form of a traditional extended written composition. Additionally, I hope to include a creative supplementary element to compliment the argument I make in my thesis project. Two tentative ideas include either a concept map or a mock syllabus for a hypothetical course on the subject matter (including selected readings with corresponding guiding questions for discussion and background notes). What I aim to achieve through this work is to communicate a greater understanding of how Senegal's colonial past, interwoven with that of their French colonizers, has created a dichotomy for the collective senegalese national identity, that which is both French and African. Moreover, I plan to focus on the particular relationship that this colonial past has fostered between Senegalese writers and the geography and the physicality of their landscapes of origin. Themes a sense of place, and attachment to the local geography and character of the land within major works of Senegalese literature will be central to this analysis. I plan on conducting this exploration through the lens of a literary analysis of one or two major works from the early colonial period (late 19th-early 20th centuries), the Négritude movement (starting within the 1930s), the post-colonial/independence period (post-1960), and the modern-day, globalized context. Ultimately, through this investigation I plan on answering the following question: How has the assimilation policies and cultural colonization via education by the French shaped Senegalese cultural identity, and in what way has this effected the extent in which Senegalese writers employ imagery and symbolism of their country's locality, physical features, or history within their writing? I plan to situate my work in localities of particular colonial and political significance, such as Dakar, Saint-Louis and Gorée Island.