Italian Academy, Columbia University
Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
Columbia University Arabic Studies Seminar, Brill Academic Publishers, and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center, Department of Culture & Tourism, Abu Dhabi)
This event is at full capacity. Limited virtual seats are available here. Please note that virtual participants will not be able to comment during the Q&A.
The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society is proud to present Thresholds to Arabic Literary Criticism. This event will be held in-person at Columbia University at the Italian Academy (December 14) and Faculty House (December 15-16).
This event is also co-sponsored by Columbia University Arabic Studies Seminar, Brill Academic Publishers, and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center, Department of Culture & Tourism, Abu Dhabi)
The program for the event can be found below.
Day 1: Wednesday, Dec 14 – Italian Academy, Columbia University
9.00 – 9.30 am
Opening Remarks and Introduction
Sarah Cole (Dean of the Humanities Division, Columbia University)
Ali Bin Tamim Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center (ALC)
9.30 – 10.15 am
Keynote Speech
Muhsin J. al-Musawi (Columbia University)
Theoretical Thresholds: Dependency and Thievery in the Adab Marketplace
10.15 – 10.30 am
Break
10.30– 12.15 am
Panel 1: The Seeds of Arabic Literary Criticism: Re-allocating Seminal and Marginalized Perspectives
Chairperson: Nizar Hermes (University of Virginia)
Shuaib Ally (McGill University)
Irony as False Attribution of Beliefs: ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī’s Contribution to the Theoretical
Development of Irony in Arabic Linguistics and Exegesis
Hany Rashwan (United Arab Emirates University)
The Overlooked Balāghah Commentaries of Ḥadīth Literature: al-Sharīf al-Radī in Dialogue with Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAīny
Suzanne Stetkevych (Georgetown University)
Camels and Metapoesis: al-Maʿarrī’s Saqṭ al-Zand 58
Chiara Fontana (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
The Name of the Key: Al-Sakkākī’s Literary Craftsmanship and Pragmatic Poetics in Miftāḥ al-ʽUlūm
12.15 – 1.00 pm
Keynote Speech
Mahdi Arar (University of Birzeit) [VIRTUAL]
لغة الجسد في الادب العربي – Body Language in Arabic Literature
1.45 –3.45 pm
Panel 2: Endogenous Approaches’ Translocation in Contemporary Arabic Criticism: from al-Maghrib to Bilād al-Shām
Chairperson: Emily Drumsta (University of Texas at Austin)
Maria Elena Paniconi (University of Macerata, Italy)
Tales of trans/formation: the intersection between Bildungsroman and the Arab Novel
(Egypt as a case study)
Simone Sibilio (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Theoretical ‘Transformations’ and Syncretism. A Negotiated Application of the Structuralist Approach in Muḥammad Bannīs’ Literary Studies
Lovisa Berg (Dalarna University)
The Role of Critics in the Formation of the Syrian Novel
3.45 –4.00 pm
Break
3.45 – 5.30 pm
Panel 3: The Poetics of Dis/Figuration: Criticism as a Sensorial Exercise in the Pre-modern and Modern Periods
Chairperson: Stefan Sperl (SOAS. London University)
Nuha Alshaar (American University of Sharjah/The Institute of Ismaili Studies)
From al-Jāḥiẓ to al-Tawḥīdī and the Brethren of Purity: Art of Writing, Aesthetics, and the Ethical
Approach to Language
Zainab Sayed Zahed (Independent Scholar)
The Imaginary Context in Nahj al Balaghah: Towards a theory of Arabic Rhetoric
Murtaza Shakir (Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah, Mumbai)
From Longing to Belonging: Contemplating Optimism in the Verses of Takhalluṣ (Transition) in the Exilic Poetry of the Fatimid Dāʿī Al-Muʾayyad fī ‘l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 1078 CE).
