Collecting and editing oral feminine poetry

On Thursday 17 May 2018 at 6.00pm, Prof. Mourad Yelles from INALCO in Paris will give a talk on “Collecting and editing oral feminine poetry in the Maghrebi context: problems and issues” in the Faculty of Arts Library of the University of Malta in Tal-Qroqq, as part of the Oral Traditions project of the Department of Maltese.

Research on traditional oral literary productions poses a number of problems that can affect one’s scientific work. These problems can be technical and epistemological, ideological and political. In the context of the Maghrebi poetic tradition, the repertoires of women represent a significant part of the cultural memory of this vast geographical area. In his talk, Prof. Mourad Yelles will try to highlight the theoretical and practical challenges of longterm research on the ground.

Mourad Yelles is professor of Maghrebi literature at the Paris based INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales). A scholar of Maghrebi literatures in both francophone and arabophone North Africa, he also probes francophone American and Caribbean literary productions, focusing on comparative studies of these oral and written literatures.

Prof. Yelles studied at the Universities of Algiers, London (SOAS) and the Sorbonne (Paris 3). He is the head of the research team on Langues et Cultures du Nord de l’Afrique et Diasporas (LACNAD). His estensive work on female oral poetry in Algeria now extends to the Maghreb in general. Prof. Yelles has given various lectures hosted by the Department of Maltese and carries out research together with members of the Department. In May 2016 he gave the first public lecture in the series on It-Tradizzjoni Orali about “Some Main Issues on Oral Tradition.”