Maghrebian Francophone Literature In Translation (English-taught)
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The purpose of this course is to introduce the American student to modern Maghrebian Francophone Literature. The course encompasses novels, short stories and poems by Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian writers. Special and constant emphasis will fall upon their technical method and thematic concerns, social and moral problems, language and tragic vision; and therefore, study and discussion will revolve around problems of genre, social and cultural identity, and the effects of irony in their works.
Class attendance is compulsory. Each student will be allowed only two unexcused absences throughout the course. For each unexcused absence beyond this there will be a reduction in the final grade. Students who are late to class on a regular basis will also receive a reduction in their final grade and/or disciplinary action.
Students should not exceed 2 absences in each (45 hours) content course.
Students should not exceed 4 absences in the (90 hours) Arabic language course.
Any additional absence would lower the grades as follows:
1 more absence = will lower the final grade by 5 %
2 more absences= will lower the final grade by 10 %
3 more absences = will lower the grade by 15 %
4 more absences = will lower the grade by 20 %
Any additional absences will continue to lower the final grade by 5% increments.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Understand of the nature of Maghrebian Francophone Literature, its historical, ethnic, and cultural identity.
- Speak with an enhanced knowledge of world literature.
- Enjoy reading works of a significant era of post-colonial Maghreb.
- Sharpen students' acumen as interpreters of foreign language.
- Undertake a comparative study between Maghrebian literature and, say, American literature.
A variety of major and minor works will be studied by means of close textual analysis, since the themes and issues raised generally unfold themselves in subtleties of style, tone, and point of view. Students should consult pertinent studies of the history, social and cultural background to modern Maghrebian Francophone Literature. The approach to this literature in class will be by means of textual analysis and debate; presentations and written essays will consist of critical analysis of seminal passages of these works.
- Active class participation and oral presentation - 15%
- Midterm Exam - 20%
- Research paper (8-10 pages) due by week 12 - 30%
- Final exam: 35%
| Week | Topic | Content |
| 1 | Colonial Discourse and Post Colonial Theory |
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| 2 | Decolonizing Maghrebian Societies |
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| 3 | Nationalist Narratives and the quest for a post colonial Otherness |
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| 4 | The Looking Glass: A Portrait of disintegrated Maghrebian Societies |
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| 5 | “Shahrazad” is not Dead: Female consciousness in Maghrebian Women fiction, from the traditional text of Women to the target text of the revised women codes in the late “Moudawana” |
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| 6 | The Maghrebian Writer and the Fictional Liberation of the Repressed Histories |
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| 7 | The Maghrebian Autobiographical Novel: Man’s Struggle for Survival |
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| 8 | The Rhetoric of Space and Time in Maghrebian Francophone literature |
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| 9 | Text and Subtext: Hybridity as a subversive Form of Writing |
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| 10 | Stylistic and Narrative Techniques in Maghrebian Modern Fiction and Poetry |
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| 11 | Maghrebian Francophone Literature and the Question of Western Literary Genre |
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| 12 | Maghrebian Francophone Literature and the problematic of Reading |
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- Ahmed Saber. Voices from Underground , Poems 1973- 2001,Imp. INFO-PRINT. 2004
- Assia Djebbar. Fantasia, Tr. Dorothy S. Blair. Heinemann, Postmouth, NH, 1985
- Driss Chraibi. The Past Simple.tr. A.Harter, Three Continent Press, 1990
- Leila Abouzeid. Year of the Elephant.tr. the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
- Leila Abouzeid, The Director and Other Short Stories From Morocco.Tr.The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at University of Texas at Austin, 2005
- Mohammed Choukri. For Bread.Alone. Tr. Paul Bowles, Grafton Books, 1987
- Priscilla Ringrose, Assia Djebar: In Dialogue with Feminisms. Rodopi B.V, Amsterdam, New York, 2006
- Rachid Boujedra. The Repudiation.. Three Continent Press,Inc. Colorado Springs, 1995
- Tahar Ben Jelloun. The Sand Child.Tr.Alan Sheridan. Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 2000
- Tahar Ben Jelloun. Silent day in Tangier, Harcourt Brace Jovanivich, 1991
- Tahar Ben Jelloun. The Sacred Night.Tr. Alan Sheridan, JH University Press,2000
- Tahar Ben Jelloun. With Downcast Eyes.TR. Joachin Neugroschel.Little Brown and Company. Boston Toronto London, 1993
- Zrizi Hassan, Back To Bahja. Imprimerie Badaoui, Rabat, 2008
- Belinda, Elsabeth Jack, Francophone. Literatures: An introductory Survey. Oxford University Press,1996.
- Bourquia, R &Miller, S. In the Shadow of the Sultan. Culture, Power and Politics in Morocco. Cambridge: Harvard center for Middle Easter n Studies, 1990.
- Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972.
- Clfford, James. The Predicament of Culture. Cambridge: Harvard university Press, 1988.
- Davidson, Basil. Africa in Modern History: The Search for a New Society. London: Allen Lane, 1978.
- Cook, Miriam. “The Other Language and Construction of the Self”, Peuples Mediterranéens, No 78 (January- March,1997)
- During, Simon. “Post Modernism or Post colonialism?” Landfall,39 (September 1985)
- Irele, Abiola. The African Experience in Literature and Ideology. London: Heinemann, 1981.
- Lionnet, Françoise. “Spaces of Comparison” in Comparative Literature in the Age of Multi lingualism, edited by Charles Bernheimer, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press 1995
- Motimer, Mildred (ed) Maghrebian Mosaic Transition. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2001
- Miller, Christopher, L. Theories of Africans: Francophone literature and Anthropology in Africa. Chicgo: Chicago University Press, 1990.
- Ngugi, Wa Thiong’o. Decolonizing the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London: Currey, 1986.
- Orlando, Valerie. Normative Voices of Exile: Feminine Identity in Francophone Literature of the Maghreb, Ohio University Press, 1999.
- Orlando, Valerie. “Feminine Spaces and Places in the Dark Recesses of Morocco’s Past: The Prison Testimonials in Poetry and Prose of Saidia Menebhi and Fatna El Bouih” in The Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 15 (3), Sep. 2010, pp.273- 288
- Saadi, Ouafaa. Perception of the Other through the Myth of the Prodigal Son in Contemporary French-Language Moroccan Literature. Doctorat du III Cycle, Université de Nice, 1994
