Tarek El-Ariss

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.

Texts:

Course packet.

Grading:

To be provided by the instructor.

Course Description

Through films, music, literature, and historical and political writings and internet sites, this interdisciplinary course examines what has come to be known as “The Arab Spring,” namely the social and political upheavals and revolutions that gripped the Arab world  starting with Tunisia in December 2010. Engaging definition and theories of revolution in the Arabic context, this course will examine its recent manifestation in social, political, artistic, musical, and technological contexts. The students and I will focus on the relation between new media and activism and examine the way Satellite TV and the Internet have paved the way for a radical change in the Arab world. Conducted in Arabic, the students will be exposed to various Arabic texts from street signs to tweets in MSA and dialects from across the Arab world. Conducted in Arabic. 

Texts

Various materials to be provided by instructor via Blackboard. 

Grading & Requirements

Class participation: 15%

Class presentation (15-20 minutes): 15%

Bi-weekly writing assignments (2-3pp): 25%

Bi-weekly vocabulary lists (8-10 words): 25%

Final paper (6-8pp): 20%

Description

In this graduate seminar we will explore the writings of a new generation of Arab authors. Students and I will trace this literary development to social and political struggles within the Arab world, the advent of Satellite TV and the Internet, and the effects of globalization, more generally. We will raise the following questions: What forms of literary consciousness arise from these new texts? What are their relations to Western cultural productions on the one hand, and to the canon of Arabic letters, on the other? What new multilingual and interactive domains shape and define this new literature? We will read works by writers such Raja Al-Sanea, Ahmad Alaidy, Khalid Khamisi, Rabih Jaber, Hamdi Abu Golayyel, and Ghada Abdel Aal. (Taught in English.)

Texts

Learning English, Rashīd Ḍaʻīf.-Shahadat, ArteEast.

Girls of Ryiadh, Rajāʼ ʻAbd Allāh Ṣāni’.

I Want to Get Married, Ghada Abdel Aaal.

Thieves in Retirement, Ḥamdī Abū Julayyil.Taxi, Khālid Khamīsī.

Being Abbas el Abd, Aḥmad ʻĀyidī.Koolaids: The Art of War, Rabih Alameddine.

Grading

Class Participation (15%).

Class Presentation (35%), 10 – 20 minutes.

Final Paper 50%.

In this course we will examine the historical, political, social, and economic factors that have contributed to the formation of modern day Lebanon.  We will also analyze the transformations Lebanon has experienced politically, culturally, and socially due to the constant strife it has experienced since its formation. The course will be run as a seminar in which students are responsible for discussing, analyzing the assigned readings in class and in their weekly written commentaries.  All readings, discussions, and writing assignments will be conducted in Arabic to help students progress further toward Superior proficiency in Arabic.

Texts:

Salibi, Kamal: Bayt bi-manaazil Kathiira

Ibrahim, Suncalla: Bayruut Bayruut (novel)

Qasir, Samir: Taariikh Bayruut

Grading:

Preparation & class participation  25%

Weekly reaction papers in Arabic  40% 

Contribution to discussion on Blackboard  10%

Final Paper  25%

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.

Texts:

Course packet.

Grading:

To be provided by the instructor.

In this course we will examine the historical, political, social, and economic factors that have contributed to the formation of modern day Lebanon.  We will also analyze the transformations Lebanon has experienced politically, culturally, and socially due to the constant strife it has experienced since its formation. The course will be run as a seminar in which students are responsible for discussing, analyzing the assigned readings in class and in their weekly written commentaries.  All readings, discussions, and writing assignments will be conducted in Arabic to help students progress further toward Superior proficiency in Arabic.

Texts:

Salibi, Kamal: Bayt bi-manaazil Kathiira

Ibrahim, Suncalla: Bayruut Bayruut (novel)

Qasir, Samir: Taariikh Bayruut

Grading:

Preparation & class participation  25%

Weekly reaction papers in Arabic  40% 

Contribution to discussion on Blackboard  10%

Final Paper  25%