Time Periods
The three broad periods we chose for the MULOSIGE project – the colonial period, decolonisation, and the current globalising moment – help us draw historical comparisons and find connections, though the timelines do not match exactly. For example, British colonialism in India lasted for almost two hundred years (1757-1947), first under the East India Company and then under the crown. Morocco experienced both Spanish and French protectorates for a shorter period (1912-1956), although Spain held enclaves earlier and still holds Ceuta and Melilla. Ethiopia was occupied by the Italians for less than two years (1935-1937), though French and Italian colonial presence already loomed large in the region. For the same reason, decolonisation began earlier in India than in Morocco and other African and Asian states.
By approaching colonialism from the perspective of precolonial literary multilingualism, we examine how it intervened in already dynamic fields of world literature.
Decolonisation
| Decolonisation in the late 1940s and 1950s coincided with the Cold War and mapped competing internationalisms that connected writers and activists in Asia and Africa with each other and with either the Eastern or Western bloc. |
