In the past number of years, there has been a rapid growth in critical reflection on the relationship between a (predominantly Anglophone) postcolonial theory and the field of Francophone Studies. These texts have built on the pioneering work of scholars such as Françoise Lionnet, Emily Apter, Alec Hargreaves, Mireille Rosello and Christopher Miller, drawing together the various strands that constitute 'Francophone Postcolonial Studies' in order to sketch out the contours of this emerging field of research. In each of these recent works - Celia Britton and Michael Syrotinski (special issue of Paragraph, 2001), Anne Donadey (Recasting Postcolonialism, 2001) Peter Hallward (Absolutely Postcolonial, 2001), Nicholas Harrison (Postcolonial Criticism, 2003), Forsdick and Murphy (Francophone Postcolonial Studies, 2003) - there is also an attempt to forge links across traditional academic boundaries, stressing the need for an engagement with texts and ideas from different colonial (and thus linguistic) contexts in order to create a more comprehensive and nuanced postcolonial theory.

Of particular interest to my argument in the paper I am proposing will be the series of opinion pieces published in the first two issues of the recently launched journal Francophone Postcolonial Studies, featuring contributions by French/Francophone scholars from a number of countries, including France, Britain, United States. What future do these scholars envisage for Francophone Postcolonial Studies? And should we expect the development of a specifically Francophone postcolonial theory?

The aim of my paper is to trace the broad outline of these debates, focusing on a number of key issues: 1) The notion of French 'resistance' to postcolonialism. Who exactly is deemed to be resisting this theory and why?; 2) Is there a specific French/Francophone postcolonialism? If so, what is distinctive about the Francophone experience of diversity and difference?; 3) Does 'Anglophone' engagement with postcolonial theory have any resonance beyond the academic world (and more specifically literature departments)? To cite an obvious example, there was no broad 'postcolonial' contextualisation of the dangers of 'creeping imperialism' in the run-up to the war on Iraq; 4) What is to be gained from a more active French/Francophone Studies engagement with postcolonial theory?