RÉFLEXION SUR LA LITTÉRATURE FRANCOPHONE ET L’EXISTENCE NOIRE EN FRANCE À TRAVERS LA PENSÉE DE LEWIS GORDON

Abstract

As a French-speaking black woman, the cultural and political circumstances in which I grew up shaped how I view the world. Prior to my arrival in the United States of America, I had never heard of Africana philosophy. My academic training in Francophone literary studies restricted my research to one discipline. In this article, I will discuss how Lewis Gordon’s intellectual contribution positively affected my scholarship. He gave me the critical-thinking tools that changed the way I look at the world, while inspiring me to work on black existentialism, decolonizing knowledge and challenging disciplinary decadence.