Program: Foundations and Trans/Formations of Arabic Literary Theory

December 14, 2021 – Opportunities

Trans/Formations of Arabic Literary Theory: Prospects and Limits
Columbia University
December 14 – 17, 2021

Hosted by Columbia University’s Arabic Studies Seminar, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Sheikh Zayed Book Award, and Brill Academic Publishers

In Memory of Jaroslav Stetkevych

Hosted at Columbia University’s Faculty House and available virtually for all.

Columbia University affiliates are eligible to attend in person with the ReOpen CU green pass, space is limited – register for in person attendance here. In-person registration has reached capacity. You will be added to a waiting list and allowed entry if space is available.
Virtual registration is open to all.

All times listed are EST – New York. A PDF copy of the program is linked here.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Day One:

Registration for opening remarks and the first keynote talks can be found here.

9:00 – 9:15am
Opening Remarks
Muhsin J. al-Musawi, Columbia University

9:15-10:10am
Keynote Talk
Faisal Darraj
Modern Arabic Literary Criticism
النقد العربي الأدبي الحديث

10:10-10:45am
متحف الادب The Museum of Literature
شكري المبخوت Choukri Mabkhout

Registration for Panel 1 can be found here.

10:45-12:15pm
Panel 1: Opening Panel in Honor of Jaroslav Stetkevych
Chairperson: Muhsin J. al-Musawi, Columbia University
Yaseen Noorani, University of Arizona
Michael Sells, University of Chicago
Roger Allen, University of Pennsylvania
Moneera al-Ghadeer, Senior Advisor of International Cultural Relations, Ministry of Culture, Riyadh

Registration for Tahera Qutbuddin’s keynote talk can be found here.

12:30-1:30pm
Keynote Talk
Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago

Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Day Two:

Registration for Panel 2 can be found here.

9:00-10:45 am
Panel 2: THE CHALLENGE OF THE CONTEMPORARY
Chairperson: Roger Allen, University of Pennsylvania
“Cauldron of Conspiracy”: Modernity, Apocalypse, and Conspiracy Theory in Habiby’s The Pessoptimist and Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad.”
Aya Labanieh, Columbia University
“Infrapolitical Digital Culture & the Reclaiming of Postcolonial Arab Identity.”
Ali Omar Abu-yasein, Universitat Ramon-LLull
Adab al-manfā vs Adab al-luǧū’ ? ‘Refugeedom’ in Contemporary Arabic Fiction of Forced Migration.”
Annamaria Bianco, Aix-Marseille Université (IREMAM)
“A Biography for a Poet?”
Jonathan Lawrence, University of Oxford

Registration for Panel 3 can be found here.

10:45-12:15pm
Panel 3: DECOLONIZATION AS THEORY
Chairperson: Huda Fakhraddine
“Iltizām Under Duress, The Case of Ghassan Kanafani.”
Nouri Gana, University of California, Los Angeles
“Kitab Sudan: Arabic Language and Islamic Epistemologies in the Black Arts Movement.”
Ellen McLarney, Duke University
“Literature, Labor, Extraction.”
Shir Alon, University of Minnesota
“Poetic Accumulation: Toward a Critique of Settler Form.”
Jeff Sacks, University of California, Riverside
“Final Remarks on the Postcolonial.”
Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University

Registration for Bilal Orfali’s keynote talk can be found here.

12:45-1:45pm
Keynote Talk
Bilal Orfali, American University in Beirut
The Art of Enumeration in Pre-modern Arabic Literature

Thursday, December 16, 2021
Day Three:

Registration for Panel 4 can be found here.

9:00–10:30am
Panel 4: THEORIZING THE CLASSICAL
Chairperson: Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago
“Mannerism Revisited: al-Maʿarri’s Zajr al-Nābiḥ and its Variations.”
Sarah R. bin Tyeer, Columbia University
“A Case for Love Poetry in Literary History.”
Jennifer Tobkin, George Washington University
المقطّعات ال ّشعريّة في مد ّونة المقل : بين ثوابت نظرية األدب عند العرب ومتغيراتها ّين
Ali Boujdidi, University of Gabes

Registration for Panel 5 can be found here.

10:45–12:30pm
Panel 5: LOCATIONS OF THEORY
Chairperson: Yaseen Noorani
“Amīn al-Rīḥānī as a Literary Theorist.”
Michael Battalia, Princeton University
“Sociological Perspectives to Literature in the Modern Arab World(s): ʿAlī alWardī’s Usṭūrat al-adab al-rafīʿ (1957).”
Antonio Pacifico, Jean Moulin University of Lyon 3.
“False Dichotomies.”
Taoufik Ben Amor, Columbia University
“The Missing Pictorial in Narrative.”
Joscelyn Shawn Ganjara Jurich, Columbia University

Registration for Wen-Chin Ouyang’s keynote talk can be found here.

12:45-1:45pm
Keynote Talk
Wen-Chin Ouyang, SOAS, London University, UK
Creativity in Arabic Critical Theory

Friday, December 17, 2021
Day Four:

Registration for Panel 6 can be found here.

9:00-10:45am
Panel 6: THE CIRCULATIONS OF THEORY
Chairperson: Wen-Chin Ouyang, SOAS
“A Balm for Sorrows? Permutations of Arabic Literary Theory in Hebrew
Poetics,”
Daniel Behar, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“’High Treason Against Arabic Literature and Criticism’ Ghālib Hālasa’s Translation of Gaston Bachelard’s La poétique de l’espace.”
Fernanda Fischione, Sapienza University of Rome
“Doing New Criticism in Baghdad.”
Emily Drumsta, University of Texas, Austin
“The Absence of Mahfuz’s Economies in Criticism,”
Karim Malak, Columbia University

Registration for the closing keynote talk can be found here.

11:00am-12:00pm
Closing Keynote talk
Suzanne Stetkevych, Georgetown University

Additional Information:

Questions about the conference can be directed to arabicliterarytheory@gmail.com.

Organizers: Rebecca Johnson, Nizar F. Hermes, Chiara Fontana, Bilal Orfali and Sarah Monks



 The Heyman Center for the Humanities, Room B-101
74 Morningside Drive
New York, NY, 10027
  (212) 854-4541
  (212) 854-3099