Books by Carla Calarge
Liban. Mémoires fragmentées d’une guerre obsédante examine les œuvres d’artistes, d’écrivains et ... more Liban. Mémoires fragmentées d’une guerre obsédante examine les œuvres d’artistes, d’écrivains et de cinéastes francophones qui tentent d’initier un travail d’anamnèse de la guerre « civile » qui a ravagé le Liban entre 1975 et 1990. Calargé postule que la production culturelle des années 2000-2015 tente de combler le vide généré par l’absence d’un récit national qui raconte l’histoire contemporaine du pays. L’ouvrage explore des questionnements en rapport avec la nécessité de l’anamnèse mais aussi de ses limites dans une situation marquée à la fois par des traumatismes collectifs, par une compétition de mémoires partisanes en conflit et par une volonté officielle d’étouffer le passé récent et d’en gommer les traces.
Papers by Carla Calarge
Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2019
This essay examines how Jorg Abou Mhaya’s Madinah Mujawirah lil Ard [City Neighbouring the Earth]... more This essay examines how Jorg Abou Mhaya’s Madinah Mujawirah lil Ard [City Neighbouring the Earth] depicts a series of crucial ruptures in traditional collective identities, which are connected directly to emerging global realities. Mhaya’s Madinah reflects on the political, economic, and social (dis)order in contemporary Lebanon and critiques the unsettling transformations of its capital, Beirut. Carefully tailored to be both universal and phantasmagoric, Mhaya’s Beirut embodies the extent to which the hegemonic restructuring forces of neo-liberalisation have moulded the planet into an unfathomable and illegible referent.
We argue here that the aesthetic strategies of Mhaya draw at once from hyper-realism and science fiction in order to evoke life as shaped by the aftermath of ‘disaster capitalism’: rational representations of lived realities seem elusive, and realist attempts to make sense of space, society, politics, and the present time appear destined to fail. In a country where changes are happening fast, reality tends to appear stranger than fiction, and comprehending it seems an impossible endeavour. The graphic novel thus mixes genres in order to make up for the aporia of discourse on life in the neo-liberal era.
This article examines the Lebanese bande dessinée, Beyrouth bye bye... (2015) by Barrack Rima, th... more This article examines the Lebanese bande dessinée, Beyrouth bye bye... (2015) by Barrack Rima, through the lens of anticipation narrative. Set in a dystopic place where ninja turtles cross path with crocodiles, censors and refugees, and in which the proliferation of trash threatens to drown all citizens, the characters are gradually expelled from the story and from the Lebanese capital, whose future the reader is invited to (re)consider. Rima’s sequential work, this article contends, reflects on the future of the Lebanese society and space. It also reflects on the modalities of representation and transmission of the reality it depicts. As such it is a work ‘engagé’ that tries to untangle the components of an apocalyptic future. The work becomes the receptacle of collective memory and history. While increasing awareness, it calls for a mobilization of civil society and works as an agent of socio-political action.
Cet article a pour objet d’étude la corrélation entre les formes d’hégémonie culturelle, les type... more Cet article a pour objet d’étude la corrélation entre les formes d’hégémonie culturelle, les types de masculinités et les définitions de la nation qui peuvent en découler dans Le Dernier Combat du Captain Ni’mat, roman posthume de l’écrivain marocain Mohamed Leftah. Dans un premier temps, notre étude cherche à démontrer les convergences de la quête du personnage principal et de l’engagement de l’écrivain en faveur d’une reconnaissance de la liberté sexuelle des individus, considérée comme une revendication déviante et défiante dans une société patriarcale traumatisée par plusieurs défaites militaires. Dans un second temps, cette analyse rappelle les risques plus subtils d’une récupération idéologique et homonationaliste du discours littéraire, dans un certain imaginaire de la mondialisation où la définition occidentale et fortement universalisée de l’homosexualité et des droits humains tend à soutenir des représentations biaisées et orientalistes des sociétés arabes comme incompatibles avec la modernité, la souveraineté nationale et la citoyenneté mondiale.
In this article I propose to examine a vast range of works that deal with Clandestine immigration... more In this article I propose to examine a vast range of works that deal with Clandestine immigration. They include (but are not limited to) Les Clandestins (Y.A. Elalami), Cannibales (M. Binebine), Clandestins en Méditerranée (F. Mellah), Partir (T. BenJelloun), Celles qui attendent (F. Diome), Le Paradis du Nord (Essomba). The purpose of my essay is to outline the way Clandestine literature describes the dream that immigrants have of Europe in general, and of France in particular, as an Eldorado they look to conquer. The Eldorado is, as we know, a myth. In the context of this literature, it is also a cultural myth –as Barthes defines it in Mythologies –whose ultimate function is to “transform history into nature.” Consequently, the aim of this study is first, to explore how the “Culture Industry” shapes the myth of the “European-Eldorado” in the migrants’ minds. Secondly, I analyze the mechanisms used to construct this myth as it is suggested in the various novels, and ultimately, I discuss the ideological foundations on which this myth is based, or the “vol de language” through which it is articulated.
My article analyzes a 2006 documentary titled Quand l’Algérie était française. The documentary, w... more My article analyzes a 2006 documentary titled Quand l’Algérie était française. The documentary, which aired for the very first time on French television channel M6, and is directed by Serge de Sampigny, purports to offer a totally new (hi)story of French Algeria. I argue, however, that Quand l’Algérie était française is nothing but a nostalgia for a lost paradise; an attempt to recreate a world that never existed outside the paradigm of the documentary's narrative.
Edited Volumes by Carla Calarge
Nouvelles Etudes Francophones, 2019
Dossier Special de Nouvelles Etudes Francophones sur la bande dessinee d'expression francaise
Book Reviews by Carla Calarge
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Books by Carla Calarge
Papers by Carla Calarge
We argue here that the aesthetic strategies of Mhaya draw at once from hyper-realism and science fiction in order to evoke life as shaped by the aftermath of ‘disaster capitalism’: rational representations of lived realities seem elusive, and realist attempts to make sense of space, society, politics, and the present time appear destined to fail. In a country where changes are happening fast, reality tends to appear stranger than fiction, and comprehending it seems an impossible endeavour. The graphic novel thus mixes genres in order to make up for the aporia of discourse on life in the neo-liberal era.
Edited Volumes by Carla Calarge
Book Reviews by Carla Calarge
We argue here that the aesthetic strategies of Mhaya draw at once from hyper-realism and science fiction in order to evoke life as shaped by the aftermath of ‘disaster capitalism’: rational representations of lived realities seem elusive, and realist attempts to make sense of space, society, politics, and the present time appear destined to fail. In a country where changes are happening fast, reality tends to appear stranger than fiction, and comprehending it seems an impossible endeavour. The graphic novel thus mixes genres in order to make up for the aporia of discourse on life in the neo-liberal era.