French-Algerian writer Leïla Sebbar’s early work has frequently been framed as a subversion of Orientalist representational practices and their lingering impact on social and cultural relations in postcolonial France. More recently, however, subsequent works by Sebbar focusing on former colonial spaces in North Africa have been criticized for perpetuating the very traditions of representation that her first novels sought to call into question and for failing to engage with contemporary issues. This talk traces how Sebbar’s persistent attention to the past has shaped her attempts to engage with France’s present and future since the mid-1990s in writings that range from the everyday to the speculative, with particular attention to her interventions in ongoing debates about national identity centered on Muslim women’s bodies.
 

This event is part of the colloquium lecture series on Transcultural Approaches to Europe: Specters of Sexual Liberation. This colloquium series advances crucial conversations on world language and literature study on the UW Seattle campus through an interdisciplinary, multi-departmental speaker series focused on issues of race, identity, colonialism, and migration within a broad European context. These trans- or postnational, transcultural, and multilingual approaches to national literatures offer effective frameworks for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to grasp the intersectional complexity of power configurations in literary and visual cultures.

Accommodation requests related to a disability or health condition should be made by February 13 to the Simpson Center, 206.543.3920, schadmin@uw.edu.