As part of the Master in Art Criticism and Curatorial Studies (Master en Critique d’Art et Curatoriat), the Faculty of Humanities is organizing a four-day masterclass led by Professor Tarek El-Ariss. Entitled “The Unconscious, the Somatic, the Scandalous, and the Beastly: A Masterclass on Literary Theory,” this seminar will take place on November 5, 7, 10, and 12, 2025, from 5PM to 8PM, at the Humanities Campus.

This seminar introduces students to key concepts in literary theory by focusing on my intellectual trajectory which arises at the intersection of a variety of fields and debates dealing withdigital culture, modernity studies, and Arabic studies. The four sessions aim to lead students to engage with psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and affect theory, and authors such as Jacques Derrida, Assia Djebar, Sigmund Freud, Hoda Barakat, al-Shanfara, Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, and Ahmed Faris al-Shidyaq. The main questions will focus on the transformation and disruption of the constellation of modernity (subject, community, ethics, genre, novel, politics, public) from the 19th century to the digital age and the development of new conceptual tools capable of capturing these transformations.