Global Studies Seminar presents Jason Busic

The Global Studies Seminar presents “Before Literature: Miloudi Chaghmoum’s ‘Burning of the Boats’ (حرق السفن/’La quema de los barcos’) as Epic” by Jason Busic, associate professor and associate chair in the Department of Modern Languages at Denison.

In her study Before Literature, Sheila Nayar writes, “… because any discrete performance of an oral epic is always part and parcel of a pre-known story – of a story that is neither new nor concocted but already communally shared and being carried forward through time – that epic, in a manner of speaking, is already in progress” (55). This presentation explores Miloudi Chaghmoum’s short story “The Burning of the Boats” (2001) as epic. The first-person narrator of the story reflects on his experience of migration from Morocco to Spain while blurring the boundaries between individual and community, past, present, and future. In this presentation, I argue that the narrative itself blurs not only these boundaries but also those of oral tradition and the written word, regional and global identities.

Busic teaches Spanish language and culture in the Department of Modern Languages. His research and publications focus on minority communities in Islamic Iberia, and his seminars on al-Andalus and its legacy. This presentation explores the legacy of al-Andalus in the contemporary regional and global context.