Fall 2008

MES 321K • REFIGURING LOSS IN CONTEMPORARY ARABIC LITERATURE

Course Description

Starting with an overview of representations of loss in classical Arabic literature, this course lays the theoretical foundations for reading loss in contemporary texts. By focusing on questions of language and desire, the course explores literary lamentations of Arab dispossession and humiliation following military and ideological defeats in the second half of the twentieth century. We will examine works by Ghassan Kanafani, Halim Barakat, Naguib Mahfouz, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida, Huda Barakat, Nadia Kamel, and Etel Adnan.

Grading Policy

Undergrate: Class Participation (20%), 2 Reaction Papers (40%), Final Paper (40%) Graduate: Class Participation (20%), 2 Reaction Papers (20%), Final Paper (60%)

Texts

Course packet.

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