MAYA BOUTAGHOU
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The seminar will compare the configuration of colonial port-cities in the Mediterranean, in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean regions: Algiers-Fort de France- Port Louis. We will compare colonial cities in their configuration and representations in time. How did the transformation of urban planning affect urban indigenous cultures in the Mediterranean, in the Caribbean and in the Indian Ocean? Of course, this dimension can be either limited to the French Empire with a textual and spatial analysis of the development of Algiers, Fort-de-France, Port Louis or it can also be extended to other urban developments in other Empires. How is this transformation traceable in literary texts and discourses? How is it also challenged by alternative forms of historiography mainly proposed by historical fictions, travelogues, essays, etc.? This course is part of a bigger project on “Postcolonial Urban Historiographies” that develops how urban colonial and postcolonial cities are archival material accessible to understand colonial and postcolonial urban sensorial fabric and violence. |
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Maya Boutaghou is Associate Professor of French at the University of Virginia and Andrew W. Mellon Faculty (Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures). Her main research areas include: Multilingualism, Postcolonial Literatures, Literary Theory, Theory of the Subject, Historiography and Cultural Theory. She is the author of Occidentalismes, Romans historiques postcoloniaux et identités nationales au XIXe siècle (2016), Honorable Mention - ICLA Ana Balakian Prize 2019, and Ernest Renan, Qu’est-ce qu’une nation? Genèse et postérité, de l’Empire à la nation (2020). She guest-edited: “The Algerian War of Independence and its Legacy in Algeria, France and Beyond,” L’Esprit créateur (2014), edited Représentations de la guerre d’indépendance algérienne (2019), and co-edited issues of SITES: “Mapping Francophone Postcolonial Theories” (2018), of Cultural Dynamics: “The Minor in Question” (2020), and of Les Lettres Romanes: “Littératures francophones et pouvoir herméneutique” (2021). Her articles are published in several international journals and edited collections. |
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