MES 16.35 Modern Arabic Literature in Translation: Narrating Tradition, Change and Identity
This course is an introduction to the modern Arabic narrative tradition through the close reading of a number of key texts by leading twentieth and twenty-first centuries Arab authors. It takes as its focus a critical examination of representations of identity and change in modern Arabic discourses. Blending lectures and class discussions, the course will also explore the ways in which literary forms and narrative strategies tend to reinforce or contest normative power structures. Examination of motifs, literary styles, and assumptions pertaining to gender, sexuality, and class and socio-religious affiliation will also be undertaken.
The course will further examine the profound ways in which the colonial encounter has impacted (narratives of) identity with a particular emphasis on constructions of the Arab Self in relation to a Western “Other”
Readings for the course will be drawn from the works of Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt),Tayyib Salih (Sudan), Ghassan Kanafani (Palestine), Hanan Al Shaykh (Lebanon), Mohamed Berrada (Morocco), and others. The course will be taught in English.
Instructor
Kadhim
Cross Listed Courses
ARAB 61.07 COLT 53.01