Comparative Literature in Morocco: Aspects and Orientations First National Conference 29-31 March 2016

OVERVIEW & RATIONALE

Comparative Literature has ultimately survived the crises which predicted its demise. It has successfully overcome the challenges and constraints of globalization thanks to the discipline’s self-revision and its reassessment of tools and methods. The expansion of Comparative Literary Studies across geographic and linguistic borders has allowed the discipline to open up on and engage dialogue with other humanist disciplines which have been perceived as rival or substitute fields: Ethnic Studies, Area Studies, Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies and Gender Studies. 

Such cross-national and interdisciplinary openness contributed not only to a revitalization of the epistemological dimension and the political engagements of Comparative Literature, but also to a renewal of the meaning of literary comparisons. Comparative Literature has proved able to address the questions that engage different systems of knowledge and different forms of artistic productions in dialogue with one another. It has equally capitalized on the current debates about cultural identities in the third millennium, with view to opposing globalization’s strategies of hegemony and domination as regards cultures and languages.

 In parallel to this ongoing universal growth of Comparative Literature, a growth evidenced by the yearly conventions and forums held by Comparative Literature leagues and associations all over the world, the Moroccan university has introduced units of training and research in Comparative Literature since the sixties of the last century.  But the field withdrew backstage shortly afterwards, and the continuity of the discipline in the Moroccan university is largely due to the efforts of a few arabophobe, francophone and Anglophone comparatist scholars who believe in the central role of Comparative Literature within  the Human Sciences. These scholars’ chief concern is to provide Moroccan students and researchers with a solid education in the Humanities; one based on  a sense of symbiosis in spaces of cultural difference and on what Gayatri Spivak calls “reproductive heteronormativity” ,  or one’s  ability to “translate anyone to everyone” in the mapping of the cultural world order.   It is these two criteria rather than those based on rational choice theory, which, in Spivak’s view, and ours, instate a sound normativity in world literature and culture. 

Thus, to reflect on the dynamism of Comparative Literature in Morocco with regards to this international comparative dynamism, the Moroccan Association of Comparative Literature holds its first international conference on the aspects and orientations of Comparative Literature in Morocco. To inventory, discuss and analyze the achievements and limitations of the field as these have taken shape from diverse platforms such as forums, University study days and conferences, individual and collective publications, we invite proposals on the following sections. Papers are welcome in English, Arabic and French.

CONFERENCE SECTIONS: 

1.  History of Comparative Literature in Morocco

• Comparative Literature in the Moroccan University from the 1960's to the end of the 20th century: the impact of literary and linguistic comparisons. 

• The institutionalization of Comparative Literature in Morocco: academia, leagues, associations, forums …etc.

•  Moroccan comparatists and their works.

• The state of Moroccan Comparative Literature in the third millennium.

 

2. Comparatists at Work

• Comparative Literature and the restructuring of the Human Sciences in the Moroccan university.

• Comparative Literature and social change in Morocco.

• Teaching Comparative Literature:  programs, theories and methods.

3. Moroccan Comparative Literature and World Literature Theory

• Moroccan and foreign literatures (aspects of contact, influence and interaction).

• World Moroccan Literature across languages: Arabic, Berber, Dutch, French and English (cross-linguistic and cross-cultural fertilization; publishing; circulation).

•  Theories of “World” in Moroccan World literature. 

• The themes of Comparative Literature across the arts

•  Comparative Literature and Translation Studies: theory and practice.

• Moroccan literature and comparative poetics.

   IV.    Comparative Literature and Identity Politics in Morocco

•  Postcolonial Studies in Morocco: new postcolonial theories, comparativism. 

• Women & Gender Writings: their role in theories of alterity.

• Gender Studies and Comparative Literature.

   V.     Panel Discussion

• The challenges and prospects of Comparative Literature in Morocco.

•  Moroccan Comparative Literature and globalization.

PROPOSALS AND DEADLINES

Proposal submission deadline: November30th, 2015. 

(Title of presentation, first name, surname, title, affiliation, email address, a 300-word abstract, 5-6 keywords; Times New Roman, 12)

Proposal acceptance notification:  January 15th, 2016

Full conference papers (oral, PP) should be sent in by March 3rd, 2016. Not to exceed 15 pages, Works Cited included. Editorial guidelines will be shared in due course. 

CONFERENCE VENUE & FACILITATION

The conference will take place in the Humanities Space Conference Room, the Espace Culturel, and nearby buildings of The Faculty of Letters & Human Sciences, Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir. The registration and information desk situated in the Entrance Hall of the Humanities Space Building is also the location for coffee breaks.

The organizing committee will coordinate with the sponsors of the conference and see that accommodation and half board are offered to participants coming from outside. 

MEMBERSHIP FEES 

The MCLA membership fees have been fixed at 200 DH for scholars and academics, and 100 DH for master and doctoring students. Both are payable at the registration and information desk in the Entrance Hall of the Humanities Space building before the conference proceedings.

CONTACT

t.nakkouch@uiz.ac.ma; hassan22taleb@yahoo.fr 

 

SCIENTIFIC BOARD

• Prof. Said Allouch ( Mohamed V Univ.; Honorary President of MCLA)

• Prof. Hassan Mekouar ( Honorary member of MCLA, Morocco)

• Prof. Touria Nakkouch ( Ibn-Zohr Univ.; President of MCLA, Morocco)

• Prof. Fatiha Taib (Mohamed V Univ., Rabat, Morocco)

• Prof. Hassan Taleb ( Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)

• Prof.Nora Lghzari (Mohamed V Univ. Rabat, Morocco)

• Prof. Kamal Sbiri (Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)

• Prof. Mustapha Aabi ( Ibn-Zohr University)

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE 

• Prof. Hanan Bennoudi ( Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco) President

• Prof. Youssef Tamer (Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)

• Prof. Touria Nakkouch (Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)

• Prof Brahim Houban (Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)

• Prof. Hassan Taleb (Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)

• Prof. Driss Aabiza ( Mohamed V Univ., Rabat, Morocco)

• Prof. Abdelghani El Khairate (Ibn-Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)

• Mounir Birouk, Doctoring student ( Mohamed V Univ. Rabat, Morocco)

• Marroune Siham ( Doctoring student ( Moilay Slimne Un., BeniMellal)