Repenser l’Hexagone dans la production culturelle noire contemporaine
What role do geographical imaginaries play in the production of black identities, and of racial difference as a marker of alterity in France? In this session, departing from an interrogation of the use of the Hexagon as an image to represent the part of the French territory located on the European continent, we will explore the way that certain black cultural and artistic production from the 2020s trouble hegemonic representations of the national territory. Analysing the representation of the national space in Rébecca Chaillon’s Carte noire nommée désir (2021), of domestic space in Alice Diop’s Saint-Omer (2022) and of nature in Seynabou Sonko’s Djinns (2023), we will discuss the alternative understandings of territory, belonging and alterity that may emerge from perspectival shifts.
About the speaker
Sophie Marie Niang is a sociologist whose research focuses on questions of oppression and resistance. She is a Lecturer in Cultural Policy at King's College London. Her first project focused on refusal and prefiguration in contemporary black cultural production in France. She is currently developing a research project on childhood and resistance. Her work is published in Sociology Compass, Modern and Contemporary France, openworks, Feminist Review, and Mid-Theory.
When: May 7th, 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM
Where: ULB, Campus Solbosch, Building S, 12th Floor, Room Rokkan or online (Teams)
