Special Topics in Comparative Literature (488-0-20)

Topic

Errancy, Writing, and Francophone

Instructors

Nasrin Qader
847/491-8263
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-101

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-425: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Errancy, Writing, and Francophone African Fiction

The Moroccan scholar, Abdellah Kaaouas has dedicated a book to "errance," one of the "corner stones" of Abdelkebir Khatibi's work. Indeed, through the motif of "errancy," Khatibi converses with multiple traditions of literary and philosophical writings, as well as across time. Figures such as the translator, the voyager, the mystic, the knight, the artist lie at the core of his literary work as well as his writings on ethics and politics. In this course, we will both read Khatibi through this lens and expand our scope by turning to the corpus of Francophone African literature broadly to trace and reflect on the modalities of this dynamic's inscriptions and its association with "error" and "going stray," given its derivation from the Latin "errare." As a point of departure, we will explore one of the most errant works of world literature, A Thousand and One Nights to understand its history, modality of narration, and influences on contemporary works.

Class Materials (Required)

Tentative reading list:

Jamel Eddine Bencheikh, Les mille et une nuits (selections)
Antoine Galland, Les mille et une nuits (selections)
Djebar Oran, langue morte (selections)
Mohammed Dib Nuit sauvage (selections)
Mohammed Dib, Simorgh (selections)
Abdelkebir Khatibi Le Livre du sang
Boubacar Boris Diop Le Cavalier et son ombre
Ken Bugul Le chemin de sable
Camara Laye Le Maître de la parole
Véronique Tadjo La reine Pokou
Tahar ben Jelloun La prière de l'absent