Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Transnational Maghreb and the International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Pluralism, inclusiveness, and peaceful coexistence in the contemporary Maghrebi novel

Project description

Reading your way through countries of the Maghreb

Cultural and religious pluralism will be studied in the three Maghreb North African states – Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The EU-funded TRANSECT project will explore how national and regional identity in the three States (which were encompassed by the French colonial project) has been reconstructed into multi-faceted paradigms, codes and modes of literary production. The project will focus on a homogeneous corpus of selected award-winning novels from 2009 to 2020, which are all centred around the themes of inter- and intra-religious dialogue, peaceful coexistence and pluralism in the Maghreb. The project will investigate how these novels address national issues and how they contribute to repositioning the image of the Maghreb within the Arab region.

Objective

TRANSECT is a research project aiming to explore how the cultural and religious pluralism of the Maghreb is represented in the contemporary Maghrebi novel in Arabic and disseminated globally by means of the International Prize of Arabic Fiction (IPAF). The definition of Maghreb adopted by TRANSECT is a restricted one, only including Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, the three States which were encompassed by the French colonial project.
TRANSECT aims to explore the ways in which the national and regional identity of the Maghrebi countries has been re-constructed into multi-faceted paradigms, codes and modes of literary production. The scope of the research has been narrowed to a coherent and homogeneous corpus of selected novels drawn from the longlists of the IPAF from 2009 to 2020. The common thread of interest among these novels is both geographic and thematic, since they are all centred around the themes of inter- and intra-religious dialogue, peaceful coexistence and pluralism in the Maghreb. TRANSECT addresses two clusters of questions:
1) Which idea of the Maghreb is shaped by the novels longlisted at IPAF and sold by Abu Dhabi? How is this “Maghreb pluriel” appropriated and marketed by the Emirati cultural policymakers? Which purposes of cultural diplomacy does it serve?
2) To what extent and how do these novels address national issues before aspiring to become pieces of World literature? How do they contribute to reposition the image of the Maghreb within the Arab region? How does this literature dialogue with national reconciliation processes, contributing to cultural peacebuilding through the construction of a non-exclusionary national identity?

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 223 245,12
Address
Piazzale Aldo Moro 5
00185 Roma
Italy

See on map

Region
Centro (IT) Lazio Roma
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 223 245,12

Partners (1)

My booklet 0 0