Mourad Yelles will be talking about Maghrebi literature, music and cinema, and about cultural hybridisation and the Mediterranean during four lectures he will be giving at the University of Malta between Wednesday 8th and Friday 10th May. The lectures will include excerpts from music and films.
Prof. Mourad Yelles is currently professor of Maghrebi literature at INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) in Paris. A scholar of Maghrebi literatures (both francophone and arabophone North Africa), his work also considers francophone American and Caribbean literary productions focusing on comparative studies of oral and written literatures. Prof. Yelles studied at the Universities of Algiers, London (SOAS) and the Sorbonne (Paris 3).
Wednesday, 9.00am – 12.00 pm, OH 105 (Moderator: Prof. Albert Borg)
Cultural and poetic hybridisation in Algerian literature
After a quick focus on the historical context of the Maghreb region, we shall discuss the issues of intercultural contacts and of status the “Maghrebi Text” status. We shall refer to contemporary theories of hybridization, miscegenation and creolization : Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, Homi Bhabha. Based on some examples taken from the Algerian production, we shall specify some of the main poetic features of the Metis “Maghrebi Text”
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Wednesday, 6.00pm – 8.00 pm, NALR (Biology building) (Moderator: Dr Bernard Micallef)
Saint Denis’ nûba: a Maghrebian musical experience (France)
The repertoire of the Maghrebi-Andalusian music and poetry is one of the most prestigious parts of the “Maghrebi Text”. It is generally considered a legacy of the Arab past in the West. However, its status remains quite problematic and the few experiences of Maghrebi musical associations in France show the complexity of its artistic nature as well as identity and ideological issues.
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Thursday, 4.00pm – 6.00pm, GW Hall C (Moderators: Dr Bernard Micallef, Dr Adrian Grima)
Writing the Mediterranean. Some Algerian examples
Algeria is a Mediterranean country that has experienced many waves of colonisation since the prehistoric period. Given this historical context, it has many cultural features in common with other Mediterranean countries. However, this reality is rarely mentioned in the “Maghrebi text”. One of the few Algerian writers to have devoted a large part of his work to the Mediterranean theme is the poet and novelist Habib Tengour.
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Friday, 10.00am – 12.00pm, GW B1 (Moderator: Dr Adrian Grima)
From ghûrba to harga. Featuring the emigrant condition in Algerian artistic productions
Migration and nomadism represent a cultural constant in the Maghreb region since the beginning of its history. Yet the migrations that took place during the colonial period of the French occupation are to be considered as a major upheaval which the Algerian artists of the first half of the 20th century would describe in their works. It is the time of ghûrba. After independence, the tensions and contradictions of the development model will lead to a new wave of emigration which continues until today. Thus harraga become characters featured in novels, songs, movies, etc.
These lectures are being organised by the Department of Maltese of the Faculty of Arts. For more information contact Dr Adrian Grima at adrian.grima@um.edu.mt or visit the “Dipartiment tal-Malti” page on Facebook.
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