ABSTRACT
The Conclusion explores the multiple facets of decolonizing the memory of the First World War, as discussed in the book. It proposes the concept of mnemonic delinking to refer to the break with Eurocentric knowledge traditions in the fiction under analysis. Situating the five novels in a comparative perspective, it demonstrates that memories of traumas are of central importance for the French authors, Diop and Confiant, whereas the fiction in English, while stressing dispossession, attempts to propose an alternative ethics as a response to the crisis of Europe during the war. The conclusion thus redefines the First World War as a prelude to and/or a catalyst of other, more important anti-colonial struggles. Furthermore, it illuminates the multiple parallels between colony and camp, as well as the disturbing continuities of biopolitical and epistemic violence within and between empires. Finally, the author argues that, by forcing the reader to “unlearn” imperialism, decolonizing the memory of the First World War allows them to mourn soldiers of colour as individuals, rather than passive contributors to an imperial conflict.
