Megan MacDonald

My interdisciplinary project on Mediterranean literatures and archives is a monograph whose aim is to bring connected urban histories into literary studies, and literary studies into the archive. In addition, it also breaks out of the often temporal frame of the postcolonial in Maghreb and Francophone studies, by marking passages and drawing a line between Mediterranean urban centers and events from the 18th century to the 21st century, telling a Mediterranean story through literature and the archive that resonates today. Uniting Mediterranean literatures and urban archives into one space forges a new critical topography of literature, migration, publishing, cosmopolitanism, artistic practice, and archives across the Mediterranean. This project will be at the forefront of the current re-turn to Mediterranean studies in literature.

In this project I ask: what can 20th and 21st century literatures and artistic productions from urban centers and publishing houses in French and Maghrebi cities tell us about the current politics of resentment/ressentiment across the Mediterranean? What kinds of intersections and convivialities are made possible across these spaces? The manner in which these cultural products travel and are desired, in Europe and elsewhere, differs dramatically from the path of circulation of individual bodies from the Maghreb, the latter denied entry into Europe. Literatures from and about the Maghreb (much like raï music) have become global consumer products with an ‘ethnic’ appeal, evidenced by literary prizes, media attention, and translation. They intersect with national identities and diaspora, questioning race and belonging in the contemporary Mediterranean. I argue that there is a stark contrast between an aesthetic desire for these ‘others’ in literary forms and the parallel refusal of entry into (Fortress) Europe via immigration and border controls. What kind of tensions are in play when considering borders, especially when borders are subject to ‘uneven’ modernities? Where are these texts and artifacts located?