Talk in Arabic: The Corruption of the Arab City Between Reality and Imagination: Reading the Dystopic Arabic Novel
Date and Time
Location
The CMES Arabic Lecture Series presents
Dr. Aya Khalaf
Preceptor in Arabic, Dept of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Please note: this talk will be given in Arabic.
The lecture delves into urban corruption in contemporary Arabic literature, taking the dystopian novel as an example. Approximately a decade and a half after the revolutions of the Arab Spring, the production of Arabic dystopian literature has significantly increased, particularly to express the disillusionments of the generation that carried the banner of hope during these revolutions. And yet, through literary analysis, one can also discover features of this corruption and defeatism even before these revolutions. This lecture will briefly address the concept of "dystopia" and its features in Arabic literature, and will also present some examples of these novels.
Aya Mohamed Khalaf is a preceptor in Arabic at Harvard University. She earned a PhD in Arabic literature from Alexandria University. She began teaching Arabic as a second language in 2016 and previously worked as a lecturer at Alexandria University in several programs for European and North American students.
Contact: Liz Flanagan