The Political Hemeneutics of French Colonialism
FAIN: FB-12994-76
Paul M. Rabinow
University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94704-5940)
To study the institutions, symbols and public rituals through which the French attempted to establish their legitimacy in Morocco (and comparatively in other colonies). Project will explore an increasing complexity of subject matter and method which crosses the traditional barriers between the social sciences and the humanities--an attention to the "text" of social life. The cultural, political and economic development of the French colonial empire will be researched. Study will consist of reading on the symbolic dimensions of French colonialism and a hermeneutic of that symbolism.