In recent years, debates around France’s colonial past have multiplied in the public sphere and literature has played a significant political and critical role to address this legacy. From the Belgian colonisation in Congo (2012) to the Indochina War in An Honourable Exit (2022), Goncourt Prize-winning author Éric Vuillard deconstructs the official versions of History, a history written by the victors. He discusses how literature aims to illuminate structural inequalities and oppression with Natalya Benkhaled-Vince, historian of the French Empire, decolonisation and post-colonial histories.
