The aim of this course is to introduce the American students to Maghrebian and Senegalese post-colonial literature, focusing upon analogies and discrepancies in terms of their thematic concerns and technical methods, characterization, and tragic vision.
When we focus on Maghrebian and Senegalese literature each in its specific historical, social and cultural context, we are likely to find that the colonial and post-colonial experiences of the Maghreb and Senegal are powerfully perceived and imperatively present in the discourse of characters. The Maghrebian and Senegalese Francophone writers do not present individuals moving in a prefabricated world, but men and women seen in social milieu which convey the complexities of their social lives and their failure to come to terms with them. As we probe their complex social lives and social relations, we will understand the basic elements in the writers’ tragic vision.
We will also examine how Maghrebian and Senegalese writers use forms of literature that embody post-colonial, political, historical, ideological and cultural tensions which the writers are forced to resolve on a « hybrid » level. We will see how their writings are grounded in a hybrid form of aesthetics based on the liberatory agenda of the “Souffles” group and their skeptical stand towards both Western and Arabo-Islamic totalities in the case of Tahar Benjelloun and on the moral configurations which some Senegalese writers (David Diop, Leopold Sédar Senghor and Aminata Sow Fall) draw from an African and Sub-Saharian rejection and glorification of colonial and post-colonial histories.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course students will be expected to:
• Identify the characteristic and specificities of Maghrebian and Senegalese literature(s)
• Provide examples of how Maghrebian and Senegalese writers have expressed their colonial and postcolonial experiences and tensions thematically in a hybrid form of esthetic writing.
• Explain how Maghrebian and Senegalese literature is rooted in a hybrid form of aesthetics based on the literary principles initiated by “avant garde” writers in both regions
• Provide examples of how these writers adopt a “schizophrenic” attitude, rejecting and glorifying colonial and postcolonial histories
• Demonstrate an understanding of how Maghrebian and Senegalese writers’ hybrid aesthetics are manifested on four levels: narration and the use of language, narrativization and narrating the nation.
Method of presentation:
Lectures, class discussion, student presentations (oral and written) and field studies, which consist of organizing seminars on Maghrebian and Senegalese literature in collaboration with the Institute for African Studies (IAS) in Rabat. Students also will participate in a one-week study tour to Dakar, Senegal.
Field study:
During the summer term, students will take part in a five-day visit to Dakar, Senegal that will allow students to explore first-hand another part of the Francophone world. Students will be hosted by the Université Cheikh Anta Diop and will stay in university housing for the duration of their stay. Students will visit key organizations that focus on Francophone Studies, Women's Rights, Migration, and Development, and University faculty will offer special lectures on Francophone Literature, Islam in Senegal, and the Trajectory of African Migration. Students also will have the opportunity to debate with local university students on topics such as Islam in Senegal and Migration. Lectures topics specifically relevant to this course will include:
• The social and cultural conditions that helped shape Maghrebian-Senegalese Francophone literature
• Themes, motives and symbols that dominate Maghrebian-Senegalese Francophone literature
• 'Hybridity' as a subversive form of writing in Maghrebian-Senegalese Francophone literature
Required work and form of assessment:
Class Participation and Presentations: 20%.
Each student is required to give 2 presentations (10 minutes each) on issues related to the syllabus.
Midterm Test 30%. Students will be asked to analyze 2 passages from the books they have studied.
Final Exam 50%. This exam consists of 6 essay questions covering the syllabus.
content:
• WEEK 1: SELF ALIENATION IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE LITERATURE
o Day 1: Driss Chraibi, Le Passé Simple (novel), chapter 1, pp. 13-43
o Day 2: A. Khatibi, Mémoire Tatouée (novel), Chapter 3 « Ainsi tourne la Culture », pp.53- 64
o Day 3: Leopold Sédar Senghor, « Nuit de Siné » (poem)
o Day 4: Leopold Sédar Senghor, « La raison nègre » (article), and « Dialogue sur la poésie Francophone», Œuvre Poétique, pp. 394-414
• WEEK 2: NATIONALIST DISCOURSE AND HYBRID IDENTITY IN THE MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE NOVEL
o Day 1: Tahar Benjelloun, Les Yeux Baissés (novel), chapter 6, pp. 25-57
o Day 2: Tahar Benjelloun, Les Yeux Baisses, chapter 7, pp. 69-86
o Day 3: Mariam Bà, Un Chant Ecarlate (novel), chapter 1 page numbers?
o Day 4: Mariam Bà, Un chant Ecarlate, last chapter page numbers?
• WEEK 3 : THE POLITICS OF GENRE IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE
o Day 1: David Diop, « Les Vautoures » (poem)
o Day 2: Abdellatif Laâbi, « L’œil de Talisman » (poem)
o Day 3: Kateb Yassin, Nedjma (novel), chapter 1, pp. 41- 47
o Day 4: Kateb Yassin, Nedjma, pp. 47-70
• WEEK 4 :THE POLITICS OF FEMINIST WRITING IN THE MAGHREB AND SENEGAL
o DAY 1: Assia Djebar, L’amour, la fantasia (novel), chapter1, pp.11- 13
o Day 2: Assia Djebar, L’amour, la fantasia, last chapter, « Cinquième mouvement », pp. 297- 302
o Day 3: Nafissatou Dia Diouf, Retour d’un si long Exil (novella), pp. 5-40
o Day 4: Nafissatou Dia Diouf, « Pulpes » (poem)
• WEEK 5 :THE DREAM OF EVASION IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE LITERATURE
o Day 1: Fatou Diome, Le Ventre de l’Atlantique (novel) the last 2 chapters page numbers?
o Day 2: Fatou Diome, Le Ventre de L’atlantique, the last 2 chapters page numbers?
o Day 3: Rachid Boujedra, La Topographie idéale, (novel), chapter 13, pp. 157- 170
o Day 4: Rachid Boujedra, La Topographie Idéale, chapter 13, pp. 157- 170
• WEEK 6 : THE ISLAMIC DISCOURSE IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE LITERATURE
o Day1: Tahar Benjelloun, L’enfant de Sable (novel), chapter 2 « La Porte de Jeudi », pp. 15- 27
o Day 2: Tahar Benjelloun, L’enfant de Sable, chapter 3: « La Porte du Vendredi », pp. 29-40
o Day 3: Cheikh Amidou Kane, L’aventure ambiguë, chapter 2, pp. 15-39
o Day 4: Cheikh Amidou Kane, L’aventure ambiguë, chapter 9, pp. 183- 189
Required readings:
• Benjelloun, Tahar. L’enfant de Sable, chapters 2 and 3.
• Boujedra, Rachid. La Topographie Idéale, chapter 13.
• Chraibi, Driss. Le Passé Simple, chapter 1.
• Diome, Fatou. Le Ventre de l’Atlantique, the last 2 chapters.
• Diop, David. « Les Vautours »
• Djebar, Assia. L’amour, la fantasia, chapter 1 and cinquième mouvement.
• Kane, Cheikh Amidou. L’aventure Ambiguë, Julliard, 1961, chapters 2 and 9.
• Khatibi, Abdelkebir. Mémoire Tatouée, chapter 3.
• Laabi, Abdellatif. « L’œil de Talisman » in Le règne de Barbarie.
• Senghor, Leopold Sédar. « Nuit de Siné » in Œuvre Poétique
• Yassine, Kateb. Nedjma, chapter 1.
Recommended readings:
• Adekunle, Amosu Tundonu. Les Blancs dans le roman sénégalais (de Bakary Diallo à cheikh Hamidou kane 1926- 1961), Dakar, Univ. De Dakar, 1975.
• Dramé, Monsour. L’interculturalité au regard du roman sénégalais et québécois, Paris, Harmattan, 2003.
• Gontard, Mark. Le Moi Etrange. Littérature Marocaine de Langue Française. Paris, L’Harmathan, 1993.
• Joubert, Jean-Louis (ed). Littérature Francophone (Anthologie), Nathan, Paris, 1992.
• Khatibi, Abdelakabir. Penser le Maghreb, Rabat : SMER, 1993
• Mortiner, Mildred (ed). Maghrebian Mosiac : A Literature in Transition (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2001)
• Orlando, Valerie. Nomadic Voices of Exile: Feminine Identity in Francophone Literature of the Maghreb, Ohio University Press, 1991.
• Rouch, Alain et Gerard Clavreuil. « Sénégal », Littératures nationales d’écriture française : Histoire et Anthologie, Paris, Bordas, 1986, p. 391- 450.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Driss Adli holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature. His thesis was prepared during his study visits at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (1993—1996), and defended at the University Hassan II, Mohammedia. His thesis title was “The Representational Form in O’Neill and Ibsen’s Drama: A comparative Study”. Currently he is a professor of Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts, Mohammedia. Professor Adli has taught English language at various levels and a variety of courses including “British and American literature and Culture”, “Literary criticism”, “Comparative Drama” (European, African, and American Dramas). Dr. Adli has given talks and presentations on various issues related to Maghrebian culture and literature at American and Moroccan universities. Currently, he is directing a research group on Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts, University Hassan II, Mohammedia. Among his recent publications, “The Semiotics of Performance and the Semiotics of Reception”, Bouhout, N.10, 2006, “Towards a Model of Teaching Drama at the University”, Bouhout, 12-13, 2007. “Globalization and the Decline of Utopia”, Bouhout, N.14 (forthcoming, November, 2008).
Maghrebian and Senegalese Post-Colonial Literature: A Comparative Study
The aim of this course is to introduce the American students to Maghrebian and Senegalese post-colonial literature, focusing upon analogies and discrepancies in terms of their thematic concerns and technical methods, characterization, and tragic vision.
When we focus on Maghrebian and Senegalese literature each in its specific historical, social and cultural context, we are likely to find that the colonial and post-colonial experiences of the Maghreb and Senegal are powerfully perceived and imperatively present in the discourse of characters. The Maghrebian and Senegalese Francophone writers do not present individuals moving in a prefabricated world, but men and women seen in social milieu which convey the complexities of their social lives and their failure to come to terms with them. As we probe their complex social lives and social relations, we will understand the basic elements in the writers’ tragic vision.
We will also examine how Maghrebian and Senegalese writers use forms of literature that embody post-colonial, political, historical, ideological and cultural tensions which the writers are forced to resolve on a « hybrid » level. We will see how their writings are grounded in a hybrid form of aesthetics based on the liberatory agenda of the “Souffles” group and their skeptical stand towards both Western and Arabo-Islamic totalities in the case of Tahar Benjelloun and on the moral configurations which some Senegalese writers (David Diop, Leopold Sédar Senghor and Aminata Sow Fall) draw from an African and Sub-Saharian rejection and glorification of colonial and post-colonial histories.
By the end of the course students will be expected to:
• Identify the characteristic and specificities of Maghrebian and Senegalese literature(s)
• Provide examples of how Maghrebian and Senegalese writers have expressed their colonial and postcolonial experiences and tensions thematically in a hybrid form of esthetic writing.
• Explain how Maghrebian and Senegalese literature is rooted in a hybrid form of aesthetics based on the literary principles initiated by “avant garde” writers in both regions
• Provide examples of how these writers adopt a “schizophrenic” attitude, rejecting and glorifying colonial and postcolonial histories
• Demonstrate an understanding of how Maghrebian and Senegalese writers’ hybrid aesthetics are manifested on four levels: narration and the use of language, narrativization and narrating the nation.
Lectures, class discussion, student presentations (oral and written) and field studies, which consist of organizing seminars on Maghrebian and Senegalese literature in collaboration with the Institute for African Studies (IAS) in Rabat. Students also will participate in a one-week study tour to Dakar, Senegal.
During the summer term, students will take part in a five-day visit to Dakar, Senegal that will allow students to explore first-hand another part of the Francophone world. Students will be hosted by the Université Cheikh Anta Diop and will stay in university housing for the duration of their stay. Students will visit key organizations that focus on Francophone Studies, Women's Rights, Migration, and Development, and University faculty will offer special lectures on Francophone Literature, Islam in Senegal, and the Trajectory of African Migration. Students also will have the opportunity to debate with local university students on topics such as Islam in Senegal and Migration. Lectures topics specifically relevant to this course will include:
• The social and cultural conditions that helped shape Maghrebian-Senegalese Francophone literature
• Themes, motives and symbols that dominate Maghrebian-Senegalese Francophone literature
• 'Hybridity' as a subversive form of writing in Maghrebian-Senegalese Francophone literature
• WEEK 1: SELF ALIENATION IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE LITERATURE
o Day 1: Driss Chraibi, Le Passé Simple (novel), chapter 1, pp. 13-43
o Day 2: A. Khatibi, Mémoire Tatouée (novel), Chapter 3 « Ainsi tourne la Culture », pp.53- 64
o Day 3: Leopold Sédar Senghor, « Nuit de Siné » (poem)
o Day 4: Leopold Sédar Senghor, « La raison nègre » (article), and « Dialogue sur la poésie Francophone», Œuvre Poétique, pp. 394-414
• WEEK 2: NATIONALIST DISCOURSE AND HYBRID IDENTITY IN THE MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE NOVEL
o Day 1: Tahar Benjelloun, Les Yeux Baissés (novel), chapter 6, pp. 25-57
o Day 2: Tahar Benjelloun, Les Yeux Baisses, chapter 7, pp. 69-86
o Day 3: Mariam Bà, Un Chant Ecarlate (novel), chapter 1 page numbers?
o Day 4: Mariam Bà, Un chant Ecarlate, last chapter page numbers?
• WEEK 3 : THE POLITICS OF GENRE IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE
o Day 1: David Diop, « Les Vautoures » (poem)
o Day 2: Abdellatif Laâbi, « L’œil de Talisman » (poem)
o Day 3: Kateb Yassin, Nedjma (novel), chapter 1, pp. 41- 47
o Day 4: Kateb Yassin, Nedjma, pp. 47-70
• WEEK 4 :THE POLITICS OF FEMINIST WRITING IN THE MAGHREB AND SENEGAL
o DAY 1: Assia Djebar, L’amour, la fantasia (novel), chapter1, pp.11- 13
o Day 2: Assia Djebar, L’amour, la fantasia, last chapter, « Cinquième mouvement », pp. 297- 302
o Day 3: Nafissatou Dia Diouf, Retour d’un si long Exil (novella), pp. 5-40
o Day 4: Nafissatou Dia Diouf, « Pulpes » (poem)
• WEEK 5 :THE DREAM OF EVASION IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE LITERATURE
o Day 1: Fatou Diome, Le Ventre de l’Atlantique (novel) the last 2 chapters page numbers?
o Day 2: Fatou Diome, Le Ventre de L’atlantique, the last 2 chapters page numbers?
o Day 3: Rachid Boujedra, La Topographie idéale, (novel), chapter 13, pp. 157- 170
o Day 4: Rachid Boujedra, La Topographie Idéale, chapter 13, pp. 157- 170
• WEEK 6 : THE ISLAMIC DISCOURSE IN MAGHREBIAN AND SENEGALESE LITERATURE
o Day1: Tahar Benjelloun, L’enfant de Sable (novel), chapter 2 « La Porte de Jeudi », pp. 15- 27
o Day 2: Tahar Benjelloun, L’enfant de Sable, chapter 3: « La Porte du Vendredi », pp. 29-40
o Day 3: Cheikh Amidou Kane, L’aventure ambiguë, chapter 2, pp. 15-39
o Day 4: Cheikh Amidou Kane, L’aventure ambiguë, chapter 9, pp. 183- 189
• Benjelloun, Tahar. L’enfant de Sable, chapters 2 and 3.
• Boujedra, Rachid. La Topographie Idéale, chapter 13.
• Chraibi, Driss. Le Passé Simple, chapter 1.
• Diome, Fatou. Le Ventre de l’Atlantique, the last 2 chapters.
• Diop, David. « Les Vautours »
• Djebar, Assia. L’amour, la fantasia, chapter 1 and cinquième mouvement.
• Kane, Cheikh Amidou. L’aventure Ambiguë, Julliard, 1961, chapters 2 and 9.
• Khatibi, Abdelkebir. Mémoire Tatouée, chapter 3.
• Laabi, Abdellatif. « L’œil de Talisman » in Le règne de Barbarie.
• Senghor, Leopold Sédar. « Nuit de Siné » in Œuvre Poétique
• Yassine, Kateb. Nedjma, chapter 1.
• Adekunle, Amosu Tundonu. Les Blancs dans le roman sénégalais (de Bakary Diallo à cheikh Hamidou kane 1926- 1961), Dakar, Univ. De Dakar, 1975.
• Dramé, Monsour. L’interculturalité au regard du roman sénégalais et québécois, Paris, Harmattan, 2003.
• Gontard, Mark. Le Moi Etrange. Littérature Marocaine de Langue Française. Paris, L’Harmathan, 1993.
• Joubert, Jean-Louis (ed). Littérature Francophone (Anthologie), Nathan, Paris, 1992.
• Khatibi, Abdelakabir. Penser le Maghreb, Rabat : SMER, 1993
• Mortiner, Mildred (ed). Maghrebian Mosiac : A Literature in Transition (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2001)
• Orlando, Valerie. Nomadic Voices of Exile: Feminine Identity in Francophone Literature of the Maghreb, Ohio University Press, 1991.
• Rouch, Alain et Gerard Clavreuil. « Sénégal », Littératures nationales d’écriture française : Histoire et Anthologie, Paris, Bordas, 1986, p. 391- 450.
Driss Adli holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature. His thesis was prepared during his study visits at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (1993—1996), and defended at the University Hassan II, Mohammedia. His thesis title was “The Representational Form in O’Neill and Ibsen’s Drama: A comparative Study”. Currently he is a professor of Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts, Mohammedia. Professor Adli has taught English language at various levels and a variety of courses including “British and American literature and Culture”, “Literary criticism”, “Comparative Drama” (European, African, and American Dramas). Dr. Adli has given talks and presentations on various issues related to Maghrebian culture and literature at American and Moroccan universities. Currently, he is directing a research group on Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts, University Hassan II, Mohammedia. Among his recent publications, “The Semiotics of Performance and the Semiotics of Reception”, Bouhout, N.10, 2006, “Towards a Model of Teaching Drama at the University”, Bouhout, 12-13, 2007. “Globalization and the Decline of Utopia”, Bouhout, N.14 (forthcoming, November, 2008).