Politics, Technology, and Ecology in Francophone Culture

Module code: FR2030

This module explores how French-speaking writers, filmmakers, and artists have imagined alternative worlds in order to reflect critically on our present and imagine the future. From climate crisis to class war, nuclear wastelands to supercities, cloning to artificial intelligence, we will be exploring how political and social concerns intertwine with formal experimentation to challenge the status quo. Fictional representations spanning Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean will be put in dialogue with theory and scientific research in these fields throughout the module, offering you a multifaceted picture of our contemporary moment’s most pressing issues.

Indicative topics

• Speculative fiction
• Narratives of artificial intelligence
• Biopower
• Afrofuturism
• Dystopias
• Depictions of climate crisis