Introduction

In 2002 David Murphy argued for a de-centring of French Studies. Integral to this process he considered a postcolonial theory of Francophone cultures that would facilitate a conceptual move away from the “metropolitan ‘centre’ as the source of [the Francophone world’s] ‘peripheral’ cultural production”. This argument, which encompasses the place of Francophone studies within contemporary French Studies departments, was rekindled five years later at the 15th annual conference of the Australian Society for French Studies, hosted jointly by the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Newcastle. Whilst the theme, “La France au pluriel”, had been conceived with a view to promoting a re-conjugation of all areas of French Studies, that is to say a broadening of our understanding of the very term, the conference concluded with a discussion as to whether French Studies, in Australia at least, should in fact be conceptually reconfigured and ultimately renamed, either through the addition of the word “Francophone” or through the use of the latter to replace the word “French”. Clearly, focusing on a plural model of France, promoting possibilities of inclusivity, ran the risk of highlighting its opposite. But could a move towards “la francophonie” present a viable model for addressing this question? To quote Murphy, "the promotion of Francophone literature is often seen as an inclusive gesture. However, such writing is usually excluded from the category of French literature, which is generally thought of as referring to the literature produced by writers from metropolitan France. [. . .] [T]his results in a situation whereby French literature becomes the norm against which Francophone literature is judged, and this opposition between French and Francophone texts is seen most clearly in relation to African literature in French." This polarisation became even more prominent at ASFS 2007 when African literature produced a number of conference panels, which were organised pragmatically in a bid to assemble a maximum number of informed participants at each paper. The numbers of people drawn to and specialising in the “Francophone” – an epithet that David Murphy himself acknowledges, albeit reluctantly and with caveats – led quickly to a dedicated publication, in this case the present number of the Australian Journal of French Studies. The title “Voices from North Africa” was almost as quickly put forward. Given the weight of discussion that had been generated at the conference around the Musée du quai Branly, this appeared as perverse as it was logical. Could the word African be used productively, without ghettoisation or fetishisation

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