Corbin Treacy has just presented a paper entitled “Aesthetics and Politics in Contemporary Algeria: Kamel Daoud and the New Engagement” in Cork. He tells us about the conference in his first post for Textures of Time.
Studying Algerian literature in the United States can sometimes make for lonely work. When I present at conferences, I am often seated on a panel with fellow “Francophonists,” which means I might have a colleague on my left presenting on the Québécois pastoral novel and, on my right, a scholar of the Senegalese oral tradition. Fascinating though the potential connections between and among our respective projects may be, this system of classification (France over here, the rest over there) rarely leaves me feeling any closer to my chosen objects of study and more often than not, has me wondering if it was worth the trip.
