Francophonie and universality: the ideological challenges of littrature-monde

This article examines the ideological challenges to francophonie and universality initially raised in the Pour une littrature-monde en franais (2007) manifesto and elaborated further by the contributing authors to the accompanying volume of essays. The multiple perspectives and modes of expression that emanate from a wide range of writers constitute a cohesive unit defending a common cause equality and diversity in French language literatures. Yet this polyphony of voices from within the littrature-monde movement represents its most powerful provocation, defying a uniform approach to the argument and instead reinventing francophonie and universality with a series of different propositions. By exploring how the boundaries and constraints of the institutionalized interpretations of francophonie and universality are stretched and modified by these writers, it may be possible to determine whether littrature-monde can effectively circumvent or overcome obstacles to inclusion for all writers of French language literatures.