2023-24 Academic Catalog

In this course we will study representations of the environment in modern Arab culture, across the media of film and literature. In our approach to Egyptian culture we will study depictions of the exemplary space of the cityscape and the village, and their entanglement with myths of nation. In the film and fiction of North Africa and the Persian Gulf we will explore representations of the desert, and a literary and visual approach that defies the typical casting of arid spaces as barren. We will explore how works from Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon envision the relationship of their societies to the mountain and sea. Through our close study of Arab fictions we will think about how environments have shaped those societies, and how members of those societies have made claims of their own about and upon their surroundings. In translation, no Arabic required. All course readings will be in English.