Hybridity and Other Innovative Forms in Literature from the Arab World: A Twenty-First-Century Perspective
On 15 November 2024, CLIC is pleased to invite you to the 24th meeting of the Platform for Postcolonial Readings, held at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. This year’s theme is Hybridity and Other Innovative Forms in Literature from the Arab World: A Twenty-First-Century Perspective.
The meeting is open to all researchers working in the fields of Arab Literary Studies, East Asian Studies, postcolonial and globalization studies. Active participation by junior researchers (doctoral students/ research masters) are strongly encouraged. Participation is free of charge, but please register (via https://forms.gle/97XBsUkcuohSaPzM7) to receive the reading material and the link if you join digitally. For more information you can contact Platform coordinator Prof. dr. Elisabeth Bekers (elisabeth.bekers@vub.be) and guest organizer Alice Königstetter (alice.konigstetter@vub.be). Visit this page to view the programme and exact location.
Theme and scope
Literature from the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region has seen significant growth and diversification in recent years, gaining increased international visibility through literary prizes and book fairs. Central to these developments are the linguistic diversity of Arab literature and the translation efforts that have made this body of writing more widely accessible. However, these advancements notwithstanding, the academic community has yet to fully engage with the hybrid forms and genres that have been emerging from the region. Moreover, traditional language- and nation-based categorizations have fragmented scholarship, consigning diasporic and non-Arabic texts to a liminal space that is not addressed by Arab literary studies, which has conventionally focused exclusively on the Arabic canon (Hassan 2017). In addition, the historical ties between Arabophone literature and Western literary traditions, which even predate colonialism, have remained underexplored (Isstaif 2015).
This meeting of the Platform for Postcolonial Readings will investigate how works from the broader Arab literary field cross linguistic boundaries and intersect with various cultural contexts, specifically by experimenting with form. By examining intertextuality, genre hybridity, and the use of Arab folkloric motifs and unglossed Arabic terms, the meeting highlights the linguistic and cultural complexities of Arab literature. We will also address gendered, ethnic and postcolonial dynamics within these new literary forms.
The meeting, which aims to foster critical dialogue on the evolving literary landscape of the MENA region, opens with a keynote lecture by Prof. Dr. Xavier Luffin (Université libre de Bruxelles) on magical realism in contemporary Sudanese fiction. Subsequently Palestinian-Kuwaiti author Dr. Shahd Alshammari will read from and discuss her memoir Head Above Water (2022). A selection of relevant theoretical and critical texts will be assigned for preparatory reading; after the keynote lecture, participants will engage in a collective close reading and in-depth discussion of these texts. We then continue the discussion with contributions by (junior) researchers working in the broader field of Arab literary studies.
The Platform for Postcolonial Readings organizes seminars for (junior) researchers in the Netherlands and Belgium who are committed to issues of postcoloniality and globalization. This meeting is organized with the support of VUB’s Doctoral School of Human Sciences by Alice Königstetter (U Vienna/VUB), Elisabeth Bekers (VUB) and Liesbeth Minnaard (UL).
