Paris, Maghrebi Capital City

Catalog description

This course explores the ways in which Paris can be seen as a cultural capital city of the Maghreb in the 20th and 21st centuries. It will center on the understanding of the place of the French capital city in the production of writers (including food writers), filmmakers, visual artists, architects, public intellectuals from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and from the French citizens of the so-called 'second and third generations' of migrant parents from the Maghreb. We will examine foundational works while considering their engagement with the historical and political contexts in which they were produced, conveying the changing aspects of Parisian social landscape in the broader Francophone cultures of Paris (e.g. examining the dialogue with Francophone artists from Sub-Saharan Africa). The diverse topics discussed will include migration, colonialism and decolonization, political and social dissent, national and cultural identity, the politics of language, race and class, gender and sexuality, orality and textuality, and transmediterranean dynamics. We will analyse recent initiatives in the realm of commemorative events of the colonial past and its legacy, specifically of diverse controversies facing contemporary French and North African societies today. We will also have the opportunity to interact with some of the authors as special guests: Benjamin Stora, Leïla Slimani, Sophia Aouine, Tarik Oualalou. Class-visits to the Institut du Monde Arabe, Great Mosque of Paris, Palais de la Porte Dorée, Jewish North African quarters (Le Marais, Belleville), cooking class and couscous lunch in the Latin Quarter