Research – Research interests are grounded in postcolonial studies, feminist theory, as well as visual and cultural studies. Postcolonial studies is a discipline that is concerned with issues related to the human, cultural, economic, as well as political consequences on those countries and peoples who underwent the colonial, anti-colonial, and/or post-colonial experience. It analyzes the production, dissemination and circulation of representations of and knowledge about the dominated Other. My area of research is the French-speaking literature and cultural production of the Arab world, with a special emphasis on Algeria and Lebanon. I am particularly interested in exploring the (silenced) memories of the different war(s) that ravaged the region with the repercussions that those wars have in the present day region. Issues such as torture, trauma, and the many legacies of the colonial period are at the core of my investigation.

Carla Calargé is Professor of French and Francophone studies. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa (2006) and specializes in the Francophone novel of the Arab World. She is particularly interested in issues related to war, trauma, anamnesis, national identity, and the opposition to the rise of religious radicalism in the Middle East and North Africa. She has published several articles on French and Francophone literature and cinema. Dr. Calargé has been serving as Secretary-Treasurer of the Conseil International d’Études Francophones since 2012 (CIEF; http://cief.org/).

Recent Journal Articles

With Gueydan-Turek, Alexandra. “Drawing (beyond) Melancholia in Barrack Rima’s Beyrouth Rewind and Lamia Ziadé’s Ma très grande mélancolie arabe. ImageText 12.3 (2021). Drawing (beyond) Melancholia in Barrack Rima’s Beyrouth Rewind and Lamia Ziadé’s Ma Très Grande Mélancolie Arabe – ImageTexT (imagetextjournal.com)

With Gueydan-Turek, Alexandra. “Unreading Beirut in the Age of Disaster Capitalism: Jorj Abou Mhaya’s Madinah Mujawirah lil Ard.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (2019). DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2019.1686406.

With Gueydan-Turek, Alexandra “Introduction.” Nouvelles Études Francophones 34.1 (2019): 6-10.

“Une ville de marges: Quand la BD donne à voir Beyrouth.” Nouvelles Études Francophones 34.1 (2019): 30-44.

“Quand la littérature fait le point sur le confessionnalisme: Tribulations d’un bâtard à Beyrouth de Ramy Zein.” Revue des sciences humaines 330.2 (2018): 147-163.

With Alexandra Gueydan-Turek, “De la fabrique du réel (apocalyptique) dans la bande dessinée de Barrack Rima Beyrouth bye bye…” International Journal of Francophone Studies. (2017): 57-72. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijfs/2017/00000020/F0020001/art00004

With Gueydan-Turek, Alexandra. “Des féminismes du sud dans Bilqiss de Saphia Azzedine.” Expressions Maghrébines. 16.1 (2017): 219-235. https://www.ub.edu/adhuc/en/publicacions/expressions-maghrebines-vol-16-n-1--0

With Jean-François, Bruno Emmanuel. “Masculinités, homosexualité et homonationalisme dans Le dernier combat du Captain Ni’mat de Mohamed Leftah.” Nouvelles Études Francophones. 30.2 (2015): 93-110. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/612230

With Gueydan-Turek, Alexandra. “Libération sexuelle ou aliénation textuelle: la Subalterne peut-elle parler de son corps ?” Présence Francophone. 85 (2015): 152-72. https://college.holycross.edu/departments/mll/pf/somm85.htm

“Clandestine or Conquistadores? Beyond Sensational Headlines, or a Literature of Urgency.” Research in African Literatures 46.2 (2015): 1-14. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/581738/pdf

"Libération ou autodestruction? Les 'réalités' fictionnelles de Le Jour où Nina Simone a cessé de chanter." International Journal of Francophone Studies 17.2 (2014): 159-176. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijfs/2014/00000017/00000002/art00002;jsessionid=bmijoisabqkq.x-ic-live-01

"Saint Michel or Lucifer? Sporadic Flashbacks of a Burdensome Memory." Esprit Créateur 54.4 (2014): 115-131. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/565299

With Alexandra Gueydan-Turek. "La guerre du Liban à/et l’écran des souvenirs dans Le Jeu des hirondelles et Je me souviens. Beyrouth de Zeina AbiRached." French Cultural Studies 25.2 (2014): 202-20. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0957155814520908?journalCode=frca

"Rébellions avortées: Peut-on dire son non/m au Pére?" Expressions Maghrébines 13.1 (2014): 113-28.

Interviews

With Alexandra Gueydan-Turek. “Utopia and Dystopia in Beirut: A Conversation with Barrack Rima.” Words without Borders. February 20, 2020. https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/utopia-and-dystopia-in-beirut-a-conversation-with-barrack-rima