Wessam Elmeligi
Elmeligi publishes on literary theory, comparative literature, and SWANA cultures. Specializing in narratology, visual narratives, psychoanalysis and gender, from Classical to contemporary times, he examines the development of motifs from mythology to film, ancient art to graphic novels. His project of Arabic poetics is to formulate potential theoretical frameworks that can offer new readings of Arabic creative works.
Biography
With a PhD in literary theory and undergraduate and graduate training in translation theory, Elmeligi's research covers comparative cultural studies of world literature, with a focus on Arabic, SWANA, English and American literature and art. He has helped establish Arabic and translation programs in a number of institutions in Egypt and the United States. After over 20 years teaching at the University of Alexandria and Middlebury College's Study Abroad Program in Egypt, and Macalester College in Minnesota in the United States, Elmeligi is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Language, Culture and Communication at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.Education
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PhD and MA in literary theory, Alexandria University, Egypt.
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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Elmeligi's research attempts to highlight comparative aspects and historical developments of literary and visual cultures. Narratology, visual analysis, psychoanalysis, and gender studies are among the main features of cultural analysis in his research. In addition to research, his translations underline a critical perspective that aims at examining texts that have been marginalized by mainstream academia.
Elmeligi published widely on a range of texts and writers that span the Classical period up to contemporary culture, covering such a variety as ancient mythology and science fiction. Among the writers he examined are Toni Morrison, Bernard Shaw, Naguib Mahfouz, and Radwa Ashour. His literary and cultural analysis covered classical texts such as the Arabian Nights and Shahnameh, visual texts such as Persian miniatures, Iranian cinema, and graphic novels such as Maus, Persepolis, and Footnotes in Gaza, as well African-American and Arabic literature.
Personal Interests
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In addition to academics, Elmeligi is also a graphic novel artist and author. My graphic novels are Jamila https://www.amazon.com/Jamila-Wessam-Elmeligi/dp/0692896465 and Y & Y https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692732187/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
Websites
Books
Articles
Reading Her Face: Affect Theory in Narratorial Representation in Malaka Gharib's Graphic Novel I Was Their American Dream
Published: Jul 21, 2022 by Muslim Women’s Writing from across South and Southeast Asia
Authors: Wessam Elmeligi
Subjects:
Literature, Art & Visual Culture
This study examines the margins of theory and creativity by reading Malaka Gharib’s I Was Their American Dream, a graphic memoir of the Egyptian-Filipino-American author that experiments with the genre, from the perspective of affect theory, thus highlighting the intersectionality of the critical and the creative.
Islands, rooms, and Queues Three Tropes in Arabic Science Fiction
Published: Feb 09, 2021 by MOSF Journal of Science Fiction
Authors: Wessam Elmeligi
Subjects:
Literature, Middle East Studies
This study traces the development of science fiction in Arabic literature along narrative trajectories illustrated by reading four narratives that focus on the motifs of place and power, Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan, two works by Youssef Ezeddine Eassa, and Basma Abdel Aziz’s The Queue.
Unreliable Author: Narrative Duality in Sonallah Ibrahim’s ʾAmrīkānlī
Published: Jul 01, 2019 by Authorship
Authors: Elmeligi, Wessam
Subjects:
History, Literature
This article examines the duality of the unreliable narrator as authorial voice in ʾAmrīkānlī, highlighting how Ibrahim’s narrative embodies the binary existence of the main ideas that the novel addresses by constantly emphasizing the availability of two perspectives.
Exploring Fairy Tales: My Father's Legacy
Published: Sep 12, 2018 by The Loft Literary Center
Authors: Elmeligi, Wessam
Subjects:
History, Literature, Art & Visual Culture
Elmeligi shares a summer visit to his hometown, Alexandria, Egypt, where he reconnected with children books written and illustrated by his father.
Narrative Fluidity: Intermedial Interpretation of the Persian Legend, Khosrow and Shirin: Abbas Kiarostami’s film Shirin, Fredowsi’s miniatures, and Nizami Ganjavi’s 12th Century Epic, Khamsa
Published: Aug 22, 2018 by Image & Narrative
Authors: Elmeligi, Wessam
Subjects:
Literature, Gender & Intersectionality Studies, Art & Visual Culture
This article aims at examining how adaptations functions smoothly with legends, as a blend of fiction and history, across various media.
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