Pierre-Philippe Fraiture

V. Y. Mudimbe : undisciplined Africanism

V. Y. Mudimbe: Undisciplined Africanism is the first English-language monograph dedicated to the work of Valentin Yves Mudimbe. Pierre-Philippe Fraiture charts the intellectual history of the Congolese thinker, epistemologist, and philologist from the late 1960s to the present day, exploring his major essays and novels. He highlights Mudimbe’s trajectory through major debates on African nationalism, Pan-Africansim, neo-colonialism, negritude, pedagogy, anthropology, postcolonial studies, and a variety of other subjects, using these as contexts for close readings of many of Mudimbe’s texts, both influential and lesser-known. A cutting-edge, interdisciplinary book, V. Y. Mudimbe elucidates the complex work of one of the most significant African thinkers working today.

From art nouveau to surrealism : Belgian modernity in the making

This volume of edited essays is the first one in English to offer a critical overview of the specific features of Belgian modernity from 1880 to 1940 in a multiplicity of disciplines: literature and poetry, politics, music, photography and drama. The first half of the book investigates the roots of twentieth century modernity in Belgian fin de siecle across a variety of genres (novel, poetry and drama), not only within but also beyond the boundaries of Symbolism. The contributors go on to examine the explosion of Belgian culture on the international scene with the rise of the avant-gardes, notably Surrealism: and the contribution made in minor genres, such as the popular novels of Simenon and Jean Ray, and the Tintin comics of Herge.