A talk with Jonas Elbousty, Yale University
Hosted and moderated by Samuel England
Most studies of Choukri focus on his autobiographical works, often overlooking his short story collections: Majnūn al-Ward (Flower Crazy) and al-Khayma (The Tent). This talk discusses these stories through Émile Zola’s idea of the “experimental novel,” showing how Choukri uses naturalism to avoid exaggeration and instead focus on how people’s behavior is shaped by their environment—specifically, the city of Tangier and its history. Unlike his well-known memoir For Bread Alone, these short stories use many different narrators and offer snapshots of daily life in Tangier, featuring characters like prostitutes and poets. Choukri blends harsh realism with creative storytelling, following Zola’s idea that literature should be rooted in real human experience. His stories reveal the difficult truths of poverty, oppression, and social exclusion, rejecting idealized portrayals. In doing so, Choukri gives voice to the marginalized and turns personal struggles into a powerful collective story of survival and resistance.
Jonas Elbousty teaches in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University, where he served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for seven years. He is currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Council on Middle East Studies and the director of the Yale Summer Study Abroad Program in Rabat, Morocco. In addition to his academic responsibilities, he is a literary translator, a short story writer and has published poetry.
He has taught widely in the areas of North African and Middle Eastern studies. His research interests focus on the theories of world literature, problematics of literary translation, cultural history, Cultural Production in the MENA region, the image of the Arab in U.S literary and media narratives, postcolonial literature, Maghrebi studies, the poetics of exile, digital disinformation, and the life and works of Mohamed Choukri.
He has received many awards, including the Ordre des Palmes Académiques(link is external) (Commander of the French National Order of Merit), 2020 Poorvu Family Award for excellence in teaching at Yale University, Special Commendation for contributions to education from the State of Massachusetts Senate, and research fellowships.
Cosponsored with the African Studies Program at UW-Madison
A vegetarian Middle Eastern lunch will be provided.
Free and open to the public.
