Geography, tropicality and postcolonialism: Anglophone and Francophone readings of the work of Pierre Gourou

Abstract

Readings of the work of Pierre Gourou shed some interesting light on the different bearing that the critical constructs of 'tropicality' and postcolonialism currently have on Anglophone and Francophone geography. The paper shows how Francophone appreciation of Gourou has been couched in disciplinary terms, underlining the absence of a strong postcolonial orientation within French geography, whereas an Anglophone literature on tropicality has tended to caricature the involvement of Pierre Gourou and French tropical geography. The need for, and possible means of, closer AngloFrench dialogue over geography's complicity in tropicality is commented upon. © L'Espace Géographique.