OÙ CARES
Part One
The Middle East
28th November 2025
FLUP-ILC
The Middle East continues to be the scene of age-old misunderstandings, ethnic and religious conflicts and difficult political coexistence. While it is home to the spiritual centres of a significant part of humanity, it is also an area of tension and profound change, marked by particularly acute socio-political, migratory, cultural and even humanitarian issues. The region’s recent literary output, which reflects care to the world’s problems, be it written in situ and in a diasporic context, in Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, English and French, and in translation, provides fertile ground for examining the repercussions of these contradictory dynamics on identities, representations and narrative forms, particularly from a comparative perspective.
This first OÙ CARES study day aims to explore how contemporary writers from the Middle East address and fictionalise these crucial issues. In particular, literary discourse will be analysed through the prism of geopolitical conflicts and crises, migration dynamics, and identity and intercultural issues that cut across the region. We will be looking at literary works from specific countries or diasporas (Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Turkey).
We therefore encourage contributions on, but not limited to:
• Implications for narrative composition;
• Exilic, diasporic and migrant narratives;
• Representations of conflict and resistance;
• Perception of environmental change and ecosystems;
• Dynamics of cultural blending, hybridity and identity diversity.
We hope that this study day will provide food for thought on the critical issues that run through contemporary literature from the Middle East and encourage dialogue between researchers from different disciplines.
Proposals for papers (title, abstract of 300 words maximum, accompanied by a short biography) should be sent before 15 September 2025 to OuCaresevent@gmail.com.
Work languages: English or French
Fee: 80,00 €
PhD Students: 40,00 €
Organising Committee:
Fátima Outeirinho
José Almeida
References:
• Achour, C. (2019). Littératures arabes et postcolonialisme. Paris: CNRS Éditions.
• Al-Mousawi, A. (2021). Contemporary Arabic Literature and Geopolitical Challenges. London: Bloomsbury.
• Hiddleston, J. (2014). Writing After Postcolonialism: Francophone North African Literature in Transition. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
• Khalifa, S. (2020). War and Resistance in Middle Eastern Literature. New York: Routledge.
• Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
• Yassin-Kassab, R., & Al-Shami, L. (2018). Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline. London: Saqi Books.