Postcolonial Counterpoint is a critical study of Orientalism and the state of Francophone and postcolonial studies, examined through the lens of the historical and cross-cultural relations between France and North Africa. Thoroughly questioning the inability of Western academia to shake free of universalism and essentialism and come to grips with the Orientalism within postcolonial discourse, Farid Laroussi offers a cultural tour d’horizon which considers André Gide’s writing on Algeria, literature by French authors of Maghrebi descent, and the conversation surrounding secularism and the headscarf in France. A provocative investigation of the place of Muslims and Islam in Francophone culture, Postcolonial Counterpoint asks how we must proceed if postcolonial studies is to make a difference in reconciling history, identity, citizenship, and Islam in the West.

Farid Laroussi is an associate professor in the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia.

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"This study engages critically with the original arguments in [Edward Said’s] Orientalism, bringing new insights to Said’s text, while applying its implications to Franco-Maghrebi relations from the beginnings of colonization."

University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018

‘This is a bold yet erudite study of the postcolonial and the latent and internal Orientalism… It should be obligatory reading for all those who have, perhaps too often viewed the postcolonial as a means of looking outside the metropole.’

Modern Language Review vol 113:01:2018