Yale French Studies, Number 144/145

A call to reenvision and de-Westernize French studies and media studies through transmedial examinations of Senegalese cultural production, media practices, and art forms

In this double volume of Yale French Studies, editors Doyle D. Calhoun and Cheikh Thiam argue for an intentional expansion of what counts as Francophone African writing through the study of cultural production, media practices, and verbal and visual art forms in Senegal and the Senegalese diaspora today. Drawing on contributions from artists, curators, and writers, the editors theorize a Senegalese transmedial aesthetic. Calhoun and Thiam define transmedia as a "capacious category of cultural practices characterized by their production and circulation across media, genres, forms, languages, information networks, and technologies." In its emphasis on transmedia, this volume shifts critical focus away from works and their authors as privileged meaning-producers to myriad social actors (producers, distributors, consumers, places of production and consumption) and dispersed networks of production and circulation. The essays gathered here articulate an interdisciplinary call to reenvision and de-Westernize French studies and media studies. The contributors do so by foregrounding the work of African scholars, artists, and intellectuals; challenging entrenched disciplinary divides; and highlighting critical approaches that are transdisciplinary, translingual, and transnational. The volume is not only thematically ambitious but also visually stunning, incorporating images and artwork from numerous Dakar-based artists.