2016-17 Academic Catalog

In this course, we will read formative works of modern Arabic literature from Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. We will trace the processes of societal and literary transformation, from the texts of the nahda or Arabic literary and intellectual renaissance, to contemporary works written in the era of Arab "springs" and revolutions. We will approach these literary texts--poetry, fiction, and graphic novels-- as works of literature with aesthetic claims upon us as readers, even as we treat the contentious relationship between the literary and the political in a period marked by colonialism, nationalism, war, revolution, Islamism and secularism. All readings are in English.