Katie Condon

Durham Russian student Alex Haigh speaks to Katie Condon about his adventures on Russian national television!
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Katie: Hey Alex, Hope you’re well! I heard that you were on Russian national television? Would you mind explaining to that happened?
Alex: Hello! Haha it’s a bit of of a mystery to me as well I'm afraid! Olga Zabotkina (in Durham) used to live here in Kostroma, and mentioned to an old friend of hers, a newspaper journalist, about my time here. This woman came and did an interview with me, which was published in a national newspaper. After that, I suppose, these 3 TV channels saw the article and decided it would be a good idea to interview me as well, although why they were particularly drawn to me I have no clue!

K: Omg that’s so random… Was the interview in English or Russian? What kind of questions did they ask you?
A: Tell me about it! The first was in English with a bit of Russian thrown in, the other two were all Russian!

K: Did they want to know about your experiences in Russia specifically or was it more about your life in general? What kind of things did you discuss with them?
A: It was a mixture of the two, they were especially keen to know about my life here, but they also wanted to know what stereotypes British people have of Russia. In the first interview we went to a dacha, a summer cottage, to talk about life there, and in the third one we went ice fishing with my host family's Dad!

K: That's so cool !! Were you nervous before? Has anyone approached you since?
A: I wouldn't say nervous exactly, more just a bit confused haha! Yes, a local journalist is doing a radio interview with me tomorrow actually, although he seems to want to talk more about the media attention I've had, rather than why I'm here in the first place, ironically!

K: And what did you say to them re British stereotypes of Russia?
A: Vodka, bears and people quite unfriendly, I said the first two seemed true but the last one was absolutely incorrect, the people are (by and large) friendly and helpful to me if I don't understand something

K: And how is your year abroad going otherwise?
A: Generally very well, I am currently at the airport waiting to fly home for Christmas, then back to Russia for another month. It has been very rewarding, enjoyable work, both the studying and the teaching, and it will be a shame to leave at the end of February!
 
 

Clorrie Yeomans, Third Year MLAC Student, Hild Bede

Scrolling through YouTube videos, I came across Renata Flores Rivera, a 17 year-old Peruvian artist of indigenous descent with a striking look and a velvety sound. However, her claim to fame is that she posts covers on YouTube of Western pop songs performed in Quechua: the language originally spoken by the Incas over 800 years ago. Quechua remains the most spoken indigenous language in Latin America, with over 8 million speakers mainly found in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. In spite of this, today the living language of the Incas is endangered largely because young people feel too ashamed to speak it for fear of being stigmatised as poor mountain dwellers. Thus, in her early years, Renata grew up in a Quechua-speaking environment but under the influence of social pressures, her parents later began to only speak to her in Spanish. Despite losing her maternal language, Renata remains connected to her roots and through her art, she aspires to challenge attitudes. This issue lies close to the singer’s heart after having witnessed her grandmother’s adversity as a victim of linguistic discrimination.
 
During our Skype interview, the singer radiated warmth, positivity and down-to-earthiness. On the other hand, for Renata, fearlessness and tenacity have been the two fundamental pillars of building and maintaining a successful artistic career at such a young age. The release of her cover on YouTube of the Michael Jackson song, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, sung in Quechua catapulted her to fame in 2015. Now, the video has an extraordinary 1.7 million hits and counting. Renata has also made several TV appearances as a participant in La Voz Kids (The Voice Kids) in 2014 and Los Cuatro Finalistas (The 4 Finalists) in 2018. In the meantime, at 16 years old, the singer took an artistic leap from exclusively releasing covers to making her own original tracks in Quechua, too. This led to the release of her debut single 'Qawachkanchik chay Killallata’ ‘Mirando La Misma Luna’ (‘Gazing at the Same Moon’), combining traditional Peruvian instruments with an electro-pop sound.
 
Needless to say that interviewing Renata was an incredibly eye-opening experience:

Hi, Renata, thank you so much for giving up your time for the interview today. I saw on your social media that you were at a very special event the day before yesterday, can you tell me more, please?
 
Renata: (beaming and glowing with excitement) Yes, I was at an awards ceremony at the Gran Teatro Nacional organised by the Ministry of Culture of Peru for artists helping to bring about social change. There were 68 different contestants divided into numerous artistic categories including cinema, visual arts, music and literature. I am over the moon to have been chosen as the winner!
 
Congratulations, that must be a really significant achievement in your career…
 
Renata: Yes, definitely.
 
As we already know, you are a YouTube star. I would like to know, how significant a role do social media and technology play in your career?
 
Renata: Social media is definitely really important, not just for me, but for everybody nowadays. However, of course, you need to be able to know how to use it! In terms of the music industry, you don’t need to work with a big record company anymore. Thanks to social media and YouTube, there’s a lot more artistic freedom which enables the individual to make the kind of music that they want to make, instead of being controlled by a record label.
 
Your covers in Quechua have attracted a lot of social media attention, but how do young people actually feel about speaking Quechua in general?
 
Renata: Discrimination against Quechua-speakers has existed since long before I was born. Some young people are in contact with the language through their parents, in the street or even through social media. However, when I was at school, they used to make fun of the language and call other students ‘Inca’, which was seen as an insult. They were not even really aware that they were hurting somebody’s feelings. ‘Inca’ should not be an insult; we should be proud of our roots! Our language, Quechua, is part of our culture and our identity and we should be proud of this. Now, young people listen to my music and they take Quechua more seriously: they realise that they should not make fun of the language anymore.
 
Your song, ‘Tijeras ft. Kayfex’, talks about femicide and violence against women. The lyrics, ‘don’t be afraid of speaking out’ and ‘women, we are united’, along with the fusion of Trap and traditional musical influences, are definitely very powerful. Can you tell me a bit more about what inspired the song?
 
Renata: My music speaks directly to women and encourages them to speak out if they have been abused. The problem is that sometimes the authorities cannot understand the woman if she only speaks Quechua and there is a lot of corruption in Peru, and in other countries, too. Even when the offenders are sent to prison, there is no justice.
 
Do you feel strong singing in Quechua? Is the language a symbol of strength for women?
 
Renata: Yes, I do because the language teaches you to love the land and nature. Quechua women who speak two languages are so impressive and strong! However, other women who only speak Quechua are still very powerful.
 
I have read that you work closely with several cultural associations including SURCA and The Kallpac Association. How do these associations support you artistically?
 
Renata: The project ‘Pitaq Kani’, ‘¿Quien eres?’ (‘Who are you?’) (originally ‘Los jóvenes tambien hablamos Quechua’, ‘The youth also speaks Quechua’), has enabled us to create a more professional project which is more detail-oriented. At these national contests, I have met a lot of different artists. SURCA helps with the production of the videos but we are all a team together. However, I really couldn’t do it without my mum, she is at the forefront of the project. We incorporate a fusion of different instruments and different genres to show that our culture can be commercial, too.
 
But by commercialising your culture, are you perhaps at the same time degrading it?
 
Renata: No, I consider this to be part of the development of a culture which is necessary to prevent it from being lost. For example, K-Pop takes on western influences and some words in English, but the music is still very much Korean. Now, everybody is listening to K-Pop, including Koreans and international fans, and everybody wants to collaborate with the artists.
 
This is really interesting as often in the Western world at school we are led to imagine indigenous communities in Latin America as ‘frozen in time’...
 
Renata: … Yes, but we have evolved. We have adopted some parts of Spanish culture, for example, Peruvians are really religious. There are many Catholic churches in my city. We are a fusion, including our religion, clothing and music.
 
Now for a technical question… How do you go about making your covers in Quechua?
 
Renata: Good question... Well, if the song is originally in English, first we translate it into Spanish. Then, we translate the song from Spanish into Quechua with the help of my grandparents. However, it is hard as we are losing a lot of words in Quechua from speaking Spanish, so we are left with lots of ‘Quechañol’! This is not a proper term, but we use it in my family. We also have a Quechua teacher who helps us.
 
What about translating some modern words linked to technology? Do these words exist in Quechua?
 
Renata: No, there are no words for technology. We are hoping that they make a modern dictionary for Quechua as they have already written one for Aymara: another indigenous Andean language.
 
How has your life changed since rising to fame? Can you still lead a pretty ‘normal life’?
 
Renata: Now, I feel that my life has a purpose and a very beautiful one, indeed. I was 13 years old when I first came on La Voz Kids and that is when it all really began. It was a very beautiful experience. I was eventually eliminated but my mum encouraged me to not give up on my dream and to collaborate with SURCA. However, before then, I had already participated in several projects since I was 8 years old. It was the project ‘Pitaq Kani’ that has really changed my life as well as Los Cuatro Finalistas, where I met a lot of amazing people.
 
It can be difficult at times; I can imagine...
 
Renata: Yes, it was a great change when I first uploaded that Michael Jackson video. There have been some difficult moments but these are all part of learning. I have always loved dancing, singing and art since my childhood and this has always been my dream. Quite a few years have gone by now since I first came under the public eye and I no longer feel shocked or overwhelmed; I have learnt to adapt. I still lead a ‘normal life’ when I come back to my beloved city, Ayacucho, where I still go out with my friends but at the same time as going on the TV and doing interviews! I have learnt to organise my time.
 
You have already achieved so much and it seems that there will be no stopping you, Renata! What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
 
Renata: My dream is that my project will spread throughout the whole of Peru and the world. My project will be imaginative and adapted to modern life. I also dream that there will be no more discrimination. I don’t want to fight this alone, I hope that more Peruvians will come and fight alongside me.
 
What are you working on now?
 
Renata: I am currently working on my album, there is already a single out. I am hoping that the album will be released by March next year digitally. We are also thinking about bringing out CDs but you will be able to listen to the music via YouTube, download, everywhere!
 
Finally, I heard that you are studying English. Could you say a short message in English for your British fans?
 
Renata: Through my music and my project, I am revitalising my maternal language. I wanna reach out to teenagers and children and I wanna change people’s minds about Quechua and Peruvian culture.
 
The Definite Article would like to thank Renata Flores Rivera for taking the time to share her art and her experiences with readers in Durham and beyond.
 
Support Renata’s projects by following her social media accounts and subscribing to her YouTube channel:
 
https://www.facebook.com/renatafloresperu/
 
https://www.instagram.com/renatafloresrivera/
 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-QM2vahE4-IOAsLGCIecdw
 
Music available to download on Spotify, ITunes, Amazon Music and Google Play, as well as on YouTube:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQUrV_v7OK8
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIjwC-6pf88
 
Interview conducted on Thursday 13th December via Skype. Translated into English from original Spanish.

What were you doing before you came to Durham and how did you end up here?
I went to UCLA and studied medieval French and medieval Arabic. I studied Comparative Literature, which doesn’t exist in the UK, and as part of comparative literature you study three languages, so my languages were English, French and Arabic. At UCLA, I took a couple of classes which convinced me that I wanted to be a medievalist. Also, there were only a couple of Arabists at UCLA, and the one that I worked with was a medievalist. So, I essentially became a medievalist for lack of a better option, even though I always thought I was going to do modern literature.  When I spoke to people in the comparative literature department at UCLA, I was told that comparative literature doesn’t really have much room for medievalists, so their advice to me was to go into Area Studies, which is when you get a degree from the department of French or the department of Spanish or whatever, so that’s what I did.  I graduated from UCLA and I moved to Cairo for the first time when I was 22 and did a Masters there, I lived there for 2 years…

Was that your first time going to the Middle East?
That was my first time going to the Middle East, yes. I had gone to Pakistan, which is not really the Middle East, a couple of times as a child, but yes that was my first time in the Middle East. So yes, I went there, I lived there for two years. Then I came to this country, I went to do my PhD at Oxford, that was my first time living in Europe; I was in Oxford for three years plus, I had a year in Germany, and then shortly before I was finished I was offered this job in Cairo, so I went to Cairo for five years and I taught there, and then I made this decision to come to Durham and I’m still…I’m still processing that decision.

Was it a shock? Coming from Egypt to Europe?
Yeah, it’s very quiet here. It’s very quiet, the people are very quiet… In addition, there’s just not very much going on and the weather is horrible. So, it is a shock, it’s a very different place. It’s also like, I mean, I went from studying classical Arabic literature in the most populous Arab city to studying classical Arab literature in the North East of England. The professional dislocation is profound because I was a specialist, handling the prestige material of that society… even if the society didn’t care about classical Arabic literature, like they don’t actually want to read it, but they’re glad that someone is looking after it, in a professional capacity. Whereas here, I don’t think that Durham has ever had a medievalist, I mean, recently. So, there’s been this professional dislocation, since I’ve gone from being at the centre of the conversation to like the farthest periphery of the conversation, which is interesting. But one thing that I’ve gained is that now I’m back in a comparative literature department. I haven’t been in a department like this since I was an undergraduate. This is my first attempt at actually working with colleagues who work on a variety of different languages and literatures. That’s been interesting, that’s been a big positive. But otherwise I’ve experienced the move as a profound shock, and you know, there are lots of benefits to being here but there are also drawbacks.

Did you always want to go into academic research?
I mean, growing up I didn’t know a single person with a PhD. My college girlfriend’s dad, her dad was a professor at Berkeley, I think he was the first person I knew outside of a professional context who made his living by doing teaching and research. By the second year of university, I think by then I was already kind of [aware that] academic life is appealing to me. I don’t have to wake up early, I don’t have to wear a suit, I’m my own boss, I don’t have to work with other people, like those four things were the most important things. The lifestyle really appeals to me… I love all the kind of structural aspects of the thing, and I think when you’re younger that’s all you see. You see there’s an academic discipline, its rich, it has ideas, I can think and write, and it has these other benefits. The thing you’re less aware of as a student is that you know, you don’t get paid very much and you don’t get to decide where you live. I mean the pay is one thing, like I don’t care so much about that, but you don’t actually decide where you want to live, so you have to kind of follow the job to where it takes you, and it takes you funny places, like the north east of England. So yeah, I don’t know if I always wanted to do it…

It just kind of happened?
Well I wasn’t a big reader, like I didn’t read until I was 14 or something. I would never sit down and read a novel until I was 14, I’ve been an obsessive reader ever since. I wasn’t that bookish until I was 14 and then I was very bookish. Now I can’t imagine doing anything else. But then, here’s my little bit of life advice for you, you have to be really careful about this. Most of us, in this intellectual field, we like being good at things. I’m not in this job because I like a challenge, I’m in this job because I don’t like risk. What happened was at some point when I was a kid, I was good at reading and I was good at languages and somebody said to me, “Oh, you’re good at reading and languages and writing” and I sort of said to myself, “Oh, well that validation feels really nice, so I’m just going to keep doing this thing that I’m good at because I can get validation for doing it” and I’m still on that reward structure. The corridor is not full of risk-takers, its actually full of very risk averse people, who are good at one thing when they were very young and are hooked on the validation, if that makes sense.

And so, what’s the advice that we should take from that?
Just to be aware of it. Just because you’re good at something and you like being told you’re good at it doesn’t mean that that’s what you should do for the rest of your life. Does that make sense? It’s a very hard conversation to have with yourself because you have to say: I’m good at this thing: am I doing it because I like being told that I’m good at it, or because I actually enjoy it. And in my case, I do enjoy it, but I have met a lot of people, like colleagues, and classmates, who didn’t…

And so, what are you currently working on?
So, I’m currently working on a million things but none of those things are particularly interesting…. I’m trying to write a book about representations of sexual violence in classical Arabic literature. That’s my current intellectual question.

What drew you to that subject area?
I don’t know, lots of different things, I’m very interested in gender and sexuality in the premodern Muslim world, I’m interested in the history of slavery, I’m also interested in obscenity, so I have an interest in these subjects in general… but essentially I had a fight with my partner about the interpretation of a poem, in which, I was doing the traditional scholarly thing of saying, what’s important here is not the content of the poem, but rather the expression of it. And she was like no you idiot…this is a depiction of sexual violence or coercion… why can’t you see it? That fight was in 2013 or 2014 or something, and I’ve just been thinking about it since. It’s been a while, you can’t write a book about a fight but essentially that argument has precipitated a lot of research and thinking about the subject. I’m finally now getting to the point where I can actually write it.

So, you have your research, but you also do translation as well?
I have done translation, yeah. I do translation, but I haven’t done a book since I started teaching essentially.

How did you choose the books you translated?
The first one I read it and I liked it. So, essentially, I finished my Masters and I read a novel, I mean I read several novels, but I happened to find a novel that I liked during my Masters degree and then between finishing my Masters degree and starting my PhD I made a proposal to translate, so I translated that book… So the first one I chose it and the last three I was offered them.

Do you enjoy translation more than research or do you see them as kind of the same?
I enjoy coffee or chocolate... I think of “enjoy” as visceral pleasure, I don’t derive pleasure from any of that. They’re both interesting they’re both different. Translation is not as interesting as research, for me personally. But its fun… no fun’s not the right word… its creative… in a way that research can be creative but often isn’t.

In class we talked about concepts that maybe exist in Arabic that don’t exist in English for example… how do you do get around that?
That’s something that seems like a big issue but in practice it’s never a big issue. There is this phase where everything is a bit exotic and you think to yourself, “How do I translate this exotic concept from one language to another?” But then if you think to yourself, in this society there’s some really exotic stuff happening all the time that we don’t think about; you wouldn’t need to translate it so you don’t think about it.  What you might think of as intercultural mediation that you do in translation, you could be doing it here if you were asked to do it… Occasionally I’ll have something a bit funny, like something related to religion or something related to like family practices or domestic practices that I’ll have to find a way to express, but that’s just part of it.

Do you have to be aware of Orientalism in your field of work?
Yeah, all the time. You know this idea of foundation myths?

Mmm… no.
A foundation myth is an idea that communities have a belief about their origins… like people essentially… we narrate to ourselves a thing. Like you and I have a story of our lives we tell ourselves and that’s how we form our identity, you know like, on any given Tuesday or whatever you’re not you until you’ve sat down and told yourself the story of your life. Does that make sense? That’s how we make sense of the world. So… communities have foundation myths. Communities sort of say to themselves like: the thing that holds us together is this, and they tell a story. In my field the foundation taboo is orientalism. Since 1973, orientalism [has been] the foundational taboo of the field. Everyone practicing, whether or not they actually believe the argument of orientalism, is constantly interacting with that taboo. That affects you on an ideological level and on a practical level, like any taboo. Any Arabist who tells you that they’re not engaging with orientalism is lying. It’s so fundamental to how we see ourselves. And then some people make it explicit or they don’t make it explicit. But one of the really funny things about this place, for example, is that the only place in the MLAC Faculty handbook where orientalism is mentioned is in my first year Introduction to Middle Eastern cultures module. Orientalism is an intellectual and cultural movement of Europe. It is fundamental to British identity construction, it’s fundamental to French identity construction, Spanish identity construction, Italian identity construction, its present in British literature, French visual art, Spanish cinema – its key. It’s a very, very foundational, intellectual and cultural movement in the history of Europe. None of my Europeanist colleagues thought it was worthwhile to mention Orientalism in their module descriptions. So, Orientalism becomes the burden of people who work on the Middle East but actually you know, I work on the medieval Middle East, Orientalism was not an issue for me and the people I study… it’s a European product. But this is the problem its kind of like the myopia of Europe… Europeans and people who study Europe don’t have as deep an appreciation of their complex history as people who have been the victims of Europe.  And its just weird, like yeah, that I engage with Orientalism on a daily basis in work and I just find it weird that my colleagues that study Europe don’t.

I’d never thought of that before…
Yeah, it’s crazy! I tell them that all the time…

What were the most important works to you when you were a student?
So, at that age when I was like 20 or whatever and I didn’t really know Arabic yet, the films of Elia Suleiman were extremely important to me, The Time that Remains, and Divine Intervention, and stuff like that, those had a huge impact on me. Seasons of Migration to the North, had a huge impact on me. Midaq Alley had a big impact on me. Also, I mean, its not Arabic but Enfant de Sable by Tahar Ben Jelloun, who’s this Moroccan writer who writes in French, had a big impact on me. Orhan Pamuk, had a big impact on me, again that’s not Arabic. Those were the kinds of things I got into before I could really read Arabic. And then in terms of works of scholarship the work that probably impacted me most as a student is the Crusades Through Arab Eyes. That was really important. In the Eye of the Sun had a big impact on me, which was originally written in English, but that was very good. I mean I’m interested in a particular set of topics that not all students would be interested in… like who knows what Durham students are interested in? No, really like, do you guys like listen to music? Do you watch films? What do you guys do?...

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Can you tell us what initially drew you to Francophone and Algerian studies?

Well, I guess it was through my research for the dissertation that I really started showing an interest in Francophone and Algerian literature in particular. I started on quite a classic trajectory with Camus’ work, but it was through the study of his non-fiction and political relationship with Algeria during the Algerian War that I was drawn to more contemporary literature. I did my MA on Camus and Contemporary Algerian Literature, so this was Camus during ​la décennie noire: the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, which I then went on to study in my PhD in conjunction with the literature of this period. So the pathway was fairly standard in the sense that I came through a contemporary Franco-Algerian author from the 20th century.

One of the modules you’ll be teaching to the second-years over the next few terms is Introduction to Francophone Literature and Culture. If you could pinpoint one thing you’d like us to take away from it, what would it be?

One thing...I want you to take away lots of things. Perhaps think about how literature can give us a more complicated view of the past, a more interesting view — how literature can test the way the past has been written in history books, but also in official state discourses, and how literature or art more generally can challenge them. I’m not just looking at literature in that module: we’re going to do film, colonial photography, colonial postcards… So the idea is to give you a broad view of Francophone and postcolonial studies, particularly in North Africa.

So, do you enjoy teaching film as much as literature?

Yeah, I taught a little bit of film as well as photography at Leeds as a part-time tutor during my PhD. Film is great: I feel it’s a lot easier to engage people in a lecture with film, since it’s a bit more interactive. It’s easier to demonstrate what’s going on in certain scenes and how they’re put together. I really enjoy film analysis, and I get the sense that students really enjoy it too. It’s a very practical, hands-on thing that you can do in the classroom, whereas literature often takes a bit more time and reflection.

You mentioned Leeds — how are you finding Durham in comparison?

I like it! It’s a lot smaller, but it’s lovely. I was in Paris last year, so it’s a bit of a contrast to say the least. But I was very busy finishing my thesis while I was there — I wasn’t exactly living the Parisian dream, so to speak. I’ve only been in Durham for a few weeks, so I’m still getting used to things. I’ve been getting to know the town and exploring further afield too. A friend of mine came up last weekend and we went down to Shincliffe Village, which was very nice. I’ve gone that far, but I’ve never ventured to Newcastle. That’ll probably be my next adventure.

Have you ever taught outside of Algerian literature? If not, would you like to?

Well, at Leeds I didn’t teach Algerian literature. I taught all sorts, starting with Racine. The module was an introduction to French studies, so we covered a broad range of material, from 17th-century theatre right up to the Paris Commune. I taught Zola’s Thérèse Raquin as well…

We studied Thérèse Raquin in first year; it was actually the first text we studied at university!

Yeah, it’s certainly a classic! It’s one of the first ones I did as well on a module that I ended up teaching as a postgrad at Leeds. I taught Zola, Racine, and Césaire’s Martinique-postcolonial literature, so that was the closest I’d got to teaching my own specialism.

Is there a particular novel that you would be really keen to teach on one day?

I mean, I’m looking forward to teaching some of the stuff that I worked on in my thesis in the module here at Durham. Right at the end of the module, there’s a set of short stories by an Algerian writer called Maïssa Bey, who came into writing late in her career in the 1990s, speaking of it as a necessary pursuit. She explored the trauma of the time, looking back on the War of Independence with a sort of layered memory of its history. Both these periods posed critical questions: was this a repetition, or was it a continuation of history? Again, it’s important to consider the critical voice of literature when it comes to reflecting on moments of crisis. So I think she’s an interesting writer who I’m looking forward to introducing at the end of the Francophone module. Her short stories are great — they’re very well written. I think we’ll have a good time with that!

So that’s one writer you’re particularly excited about. Do you have an overall favourite aspect of your research?

I’ve worked on a lot of authors; I worked on six authors in my thesis. There’s no particular author that stands out, although I’ve done a bit more work on Kamel Daoud and Mustapha Benfodil…Would you like me to write that down for you?

Actually, that sounds familiar… In fact, aren’t you about to publish something on Kamel Daoud?
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Yes, that will hopefully be coming out in Algeria in January 2017, and I’ve already published an article on Benfodil. I’ve focused on these two writers for a while now, so I would actually quite like to get away from some of ones I’ve been working on. There’s such a rich tapestry of writers producing work in Algeria today in French. There’s a guy called Chawki Amari, and he’s worked on some rewriting as well: he wrote a companion text called L’Âne mort (The Dead Ass), which is kind of a take on L’Âne d’or by the 2nd-century Roman writer Apuleius — don’t ask me to spell that. Some people say that this was the very first Algerian text because it was written in Numidia, located in the same geographical space where modern-day Algeria lies today. It was also known as The Metamorphoses, inspiring Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and then there’s the German writer Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

This whole postcolonial rewritings thing is definitely something that I’m keen to explore. Questions were opened up in the thesis that I really didn’t have time to consider in any great detail. Another secondary element that I’ve already started on is readership and the reception of Francophone-Algerian texts in Algeria — so not French literature, but literature written by Algerians and published there. The question here is who’s reading it? There’s this whole divide — I mean, I think, from a postcolonial studies perspective, that there’s us in the UK or the US reading and studying these texts, but who’s studying them in Algeria? Are we even engaging with the critical literature, with the reception of these texts, in their own country? I think the answer is largely no, which is a big problem. I didn’t really have enough time to address this in my thesis; it’s a whole new question.

Coincidentally, you’re publishing your chapter about Kamel Daoud in Algeria.

Yes, I’ve never published anything in Algeria before, and I guess it’ll expose my work to people who wouldn’t otherwise see it if it were written in journals based in the US or UK. There’s that disconnect between how we talk about Algeria beyond its borders and how it’s understood differently in a local context. Hopefully, we’ll get to explore that a bit in the module with Assia Djebar because she is a writer who has been read a lot outside Algeria more so than inside. Not all of her works are even available in Algeria, meaning she has a bit of a controversial status there. That’s something we could cover in the module, hopefully.

That leads me nicely onto the next question: in a totally non-standoffish way, what’s the relevance of your research today?

No, I mean, it’s good to ask those questions. It’s really important that we’re forced to justify what we’re doing as well as its relevance. I think there are a couple of strands; I’ve just mentioned the discipline of reading literature in different contexts. In the context of Algeria, the content is particularly politicised because of the way it’s being read, perhaps with a lack of nuance, implicating it in political cultures and debate. We, on the other hand, have articulated a version of their literature that is not directly political. It’s obviously removed from a directly political context, working as a form of art and doing something a little more complicated, but that’s not taking into account the local reception and uses of the literary text. There are clearly divided readings: ‘the West’ understands ‘The Other’, the Algerian, in politics and culture today in certain ways.

That’s definitely something that we’ve come across in the module so far; the material is quite different to any of the other stuff we’ve been taught before. Not only is it sometimes challenging to find resources for, but also to engage with the material without reading it from a Western perspective. We have to insist on not reading Une si longue lettre, for example, from that standpoint, and it’s often quite hard to find that separation.

It’s trying to articulate its own African version of feminism. I mean, it’s kind of situated in a certain political context and culture. With Une si longue lettre you’ve got this sense of oral culture as well. So you’re right, it’s very different to how we think of literature here, and that’s one of the reasons it’s important to look at. Western literature is not necessarily the best, although it’s pretty good, but if we don’t look at non-Western literature, we lose out and we don’t appreciate or have a full view.

So that’s what we’re looking at in the second-year module. Which other year groups have you taught so far?

At Leeds, I taught first-year Language and Literature modules and then in France, where I was a lecteur, I was teaching across the undergraduate programme (from first to final year). Here at Durham, I’m teaching Language 4 to finalists alongside the Francophone module. On top of that, I’ll be supervising six dissertations, all broadly on Francophone questions. I like hearing what dissertation students have to say.

Is there a year that you prefer teaching? You don’t have to say second year...

The way that they’ve set up the language module for finalists here at Durham is really well structured, so it means that we don’t have to do as much preparation. I’ve just been doing some of the marking now, actually, and that’s quite challenging. When you’re grading something, even though it’s formative, the trick is to not have the student become dispirited, to pick out what’s good about the piece and give them positive feedback. It’s tough because you don’t want to put people off straightaway, but it’s worthwhile in the end. The students are final-years, so really at this stage of their language careers, they’re trying to perfect their French. They’ve come back from the Year Abroad; their language might be a bit colloquial as they’ve been using it in everyday scenarios, so we’re trying to draw it back to a more academic level.

​But the good thing is that you have the TLRP on your Year Abroad as well — I’m actually supervising 25 of those. I’ve just had a load of the proposals come in, so I’m quite busy at the moment in terms of marking. But it’s ok — it’s good...Don’t write that I’m complaining — I’m not complaining. But there is a fair bit of work to do. Fingers crossed I’ll manage to find some spare time for research too. I’ve applied for some conferences next year, so hopefully I’ll have some of those lined up.

Final question: this is a get-to-know you question. Have you got a favourite football team, TV show, actor…

Oh, this is tough… This is possibly the hardest question because it could give so much, or so little...

How about the Great British Bake Off — are you a fan?

Not really. I mean, I did watch a couple of episodes. I’ve been following the whole political fallout over the BBC-Channel 4 switchover. For me, it’s a bit too nationalistic and patriotic. Maybe that’s a simplistic criticism to make, but I feel a little bit uncomfortable watching it. I did see a couple of episodes, I concede — but I’m not going to say I liked it.

Maybe it was a good idea to start off with what I don’t like. I don’t have a television at the moment, which is really tragic. I mean, I could get one, but I have access to film using Netflix. I’m definitely a fan of film. Music-wise...In Leeds, I became a bit of a fan of electronic music and going out dancing… Yeah, I don’t do that anymore, not really — ok, maybe a bit. Actually, I haven't had a chance to check out the clubs in Durham yet...

Have you heard of Klute?

No, I haven’t.

It’s officially the worst nightclub in Europe.

And that’s in Durham?

It’s just across Elvet Bridge. It took the top spot in the rankings after its predecessor burnt down. It’s famed for it’s sticky floors.

Ok, so I’ll avoid Klute — I might go to Newcastle at some point instead. But yeah, I enjoy dancing; my favourite genre of music is disco — a bit of old-school disco goes down a treat. I might even play some disco in my lectures...I probably won’t, but I’ll try to find a link between that and Algeria to make it relevant. If it happens, I’ll look for you guys in the audience. If I can’t find any, then maybe we’ll try some other music — apparently it helps people concentrate.

We certainly wouldn’t mind some music: no objections here!

So we’ve got film, photography, music, and literature — covering all the bases here. I’ll be asking you all for feedback because it’s the first time I’ve designed my own section of a module. Maybe I shouldn’t tell anyone that, actually...

Don’t worry, we trust that it’ll be good! Well, it was nice meeting you. Thank you for your time, and we’ll see you soon!

Yes, it was lovely to meet you both. I’d better go grab some lunch now...

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Thə Definite Article would like to thank Dr Ford for his time, and for giving us a great insight into his work. Catch him around Elvet Riverside talking about North Africa, or maybe disco-ing his way through Newcastle. Time will tell...