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From the early modern period to our contemporary times, Asia, especially l’extrême-Orient, has persisted as both a geographical and imaginary site that represents radical alterity for the French. Vice versa, the presence of an Asian Francophonie (in South-East Asia and parts of East Asia) relates not only to French colonial legacies in Asia but also to global migration, the growth of multilingual literature, and artistic hybridity in recent decades. This module examines the literary and artistic relations, exchanges, and hybridities that have emerged from the intersection of French language and history, Francophone cultures, and Asian literary traditions and heritage. Questioning any fixed boundaries between the French and Francophone, this module studies the notion of ‘Francospheres’ that are held together by the French language and cultural images of ‘Frenchness’, but which traverse national, ethnic, and cultural categories. We will analyse literary narratives and visual arts arising from French writings about Asia as well as Asian writers’ and artists’ experiences and uses of French language and cultural symbols. We focus on these questions: What are the aesthetic, epistemological, and ideological dimensions of linguistic and cultural displacement? What images of Asia are generated, and how do they reflect upon French cultural and historical contexts? What do French language and culture symbolise for Asian writers and artists? How are cultural representations problematic, especially if they are underpinned by colonial and racial discourses and cultural stereotypes? Students will read a broad range of texts written in French from the late 19thC to the post-2000s by both canonical and lesser known writers. This will be accompanied by discussions of some relevant intermedial works, visual arts and/or cultural artefacts. There will be an emphasis on Franco-Vietnamese, Franco-Chinese, Franco-Japanese writers. Attention will also be paid to other relational axes such as the French/Francophone and Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea.