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 “Abdulrazak Gurnah: A Reappraisal”
Venue: Université de Lille, France
Dates: 9-10 October, 2025
Description:

The international symposium “Abdulrazak Gurnah: A Reappraisal” brings together scholars to explore the Nobel laureate’s work, with a particular focus on Paradise (1994), part of the Agrégation syllabus for the 2026 and 2027 sessions. Across two days, the participants will examine Gurnah’s fiction through multiple lenses: historical and colonial contexts, questions of place and identity, affective registers such as laughter and shame, and the re-telling of colonial encounters. Other sessions highlight materiality, ecology, and temporality in Paradise, as well as the challenges and insights of translating Gurnah into Swahili. Finally, the panel on “Worldly Gurnah” situates his writing within global literary and historical frameworks, underscoring the transnational reach of his narratives. The event reaffirms Gurnah’s central place in postcolonial/decolonial literature while opening new avenues for critical engagement.

Zoom registration link.

Contact person(s):

Cédric Courtois (Université de Lille): cedric.courtois@univ-lille.fr

Mélanie Joseph-Vilain (Université Bourgogne Europe): melanie.joseph-vilain@ube.fr 

Programme:

Thursday October 9, 2025

8h30: Welcome & coffee

9h: Opening: Cédric Courtois ( Université de Lille) & Mélanie Joseph-Vilain (Université Bourgogne-Europe )

9h15-10h15: Keynote Lecture: Tina Steiner (Stellenbosch University) [Chair: Mélanie Joseph-Vilain ]

“Capacious Worlds: Situating Paradise in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Life & Œuvre”

10h15-10h30: Coffee break

10h30-12h15: Panel 1: “Paradise in Context” (Chair: Ida Hadjivayanis )

– Delphine Froment (Université de Lorraine): “‘East Africa on the Brink of the 20 th Century: Political, Socio-Economic, and Cultural Shifts under Colonial Rule”

– Christine Lorre (Université de Caen): “Webs of Empire in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise (1994)”

– Maëlle Jeanniard Du Dot (Université de Rennes 2): “The Implac(e)ability of Place in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea (2001) and Paradise(1994)”

12h15-13h15: Lunch break

13h15-15h: Panel 2: “Affects in Gurnah’s Œuvre” (Chair: Élodie Raimbault-Luizard )

– Emmanuel Kilatu (University of Dodoma): “Examining the Panoramic View of Gurnah’s Paradise : A Focus on Individual Characters’ Aspired and Achieved ‘Paradises’” [Zoom]

– Vanessa Guignery (ENS Lyon): “‘Laugh[ing] now before life knots you up’: The Poetics of Laughter in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise ”

– Cédric Courtois (Université de Lille): “‘Yusuf sighed heavily, shamed by his failure and dishonour’: Poetics and Politics of Shame in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise (1994) and Theft (2025)”

15h-15h15: Coffee break

15h15-17h30: Panel 3: “Re-reading and Re-Telling (Colonialism) in Gurnah’s work” (Chair: Christine Lorre )

– Mélanie Joseph-Vilain (Université Bourgogne-Europe): “Performing and Interpreting Identities in Paradise ”

– Sandeep Bakshi (Université Paris Cité): “‘Swear loyalty to the German sultan’: De-authorising the Precolonial/Colonial Divide in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise ”

– Nina Berman (Arizona State University) and Rachel Muchira (Universität Leipzig): “The Other Stories: East African Voices on German colonialism in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise and Afterlives ” [Zoom]


Friday October 10, 2025

9h-10h: Keynote Lecture: Maria Olaussen (University of Gothenburg) [Chair: Vanessa Guignery]

“‘There was something I needed to say’: Moments of Learning in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Fiction”

10h00-10h15: Coffee break

10h15-12h: Panel 4: “Materiality in Paradise ” (Chair: Guillaume Cingal )

– Élodie Raimbault-Luizard (Université Grenoble Alpes): “Goods, Dogs and Men in Paradise. Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Postcolonial Poetics of Materiality”

– Kerry-Jane Wallart (Université d’Orléans): “Slavery, Exploitation and Extractivism: Reading Paradise through the Prism of Decolonial Ecology”

– Jaine Chemmachery (Sorbonne Université): “ ‘Time cheats all of us like that’: Time as Writing Matter in A. Gurnah’s Paradise (1994)”

12h-13h30: Lunch break (CROUS)

13h30-15h15: Panel 6: “Gurnah in Translation”(Chair: Jaine Chemmachery )

– Ida Hadjivayanis (SOAS, University of London): “‘Why do wa have so many uncles?’ Navigating Choice in Translating Abdulrazak Gurnah”

– Nathalie Carré (INALCO): “‘Kurudi nyumbani’: Reflections on a Return to the Native Land. The Swahili Translation of Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah”

– Guillaume Cingal (Université de Tours): “Translation, Plurilingualism and German(y) as Everywhere Ghost in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise ”

15h15-15h30: Coffee break

15h30-16h45: Panel 6: “Worldly Gurnah” (Chair: Kerry-Jane Wallart )

– Charne Lavery (University of Pretoria): “Worldly Africa: Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise Rewrites African Histories as Global Histories” [Zoom]

– Erik Falk (Uppsala University): “The Global Dissemination of Abdulrazak Gurnah” [Zoom]

16h45-17h00: Closing words.