The Dogon as lieu de mémoire

Strachan, John (2013) The Dogon as lieu de mémoire. Working Paper. Lancaster University, Lancaster.

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Abstract

Focussing on ethnography, literature, aesthetics and museums, this essay explores the shifting—and heretofore understudied—place of the Dogon people of Mali in the definition, redefinition and stabilization of French identity in the late colonial and postcolonial eras. It suggests that French thinking about the Dogon merits a place among the lieux de mémoire that Pierre Nora has identified at the heart of the modern nation-state.