 hmed Saadawi, Frankenstein fi baghdād |
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 Ahmed Naji |
 Basma Abd al-Aziz |
 1 |
 nadia |
Utopia or Dystopia: Revolutionary Literature in the Arab Spring
Taught in Spring 2021, in Arabic
Haifa University
Does literature have a role in shaping political revolutions? Or rather, do political revolutions shape literature? This course will examine both questions by looking at the poetry and fiction of the Arab spring that contributed to a revolutionary climate on the one hand, and the ways revolutions prioritize specific genres and thus foster new literary phenomena, on the other hand. Together we will listen to spoken word performances, read novels and poetry, watch documentary movies, and analyze street art from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere the uprisings have shaped a certain aesthetics. We will focus on notions of utopia/euphoria alongside those of dystopia/disillusionment as we learn the role culture has in voicing political demands
 said |
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 levi |
 duras |
Self-Impersonation: Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir
Taught with Prof. Nancy Ruttenburg, in English
Winter 2017, Stanford
This course examines the intersecting genres of fiction, autobiography, and memoir in texts for which the trope of “exile” is central. Topics include the literary construction of selfhood and its constituent categories; the role of language in the development of the self; the relational nature of the self (vis-à-vis the family, "society," God); the cultural status of "individuality"; the concept of childhood; and the role of individual testimony in our understanding of family, religious and cultural identity.
 Palestine Joe Sacco |
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 Bethlehem |
 A B Yehoshua |
 Arab Labor |
 Emile Habibi |
Reflections on the Other: The Jew and the Arab in Literature
Taught with Prof. Vered Karti Shemtov, in English
Winter 2016, Stanford
This course explores how the figure of the Arab is viewed in Hebrew culture versus how the Jew is viewed in Palestinian culture, through representations in literature, graphic novels, film, TV shows and music. Alongside with critical theory on the concept of the Other, and the contasting narratives to the historical context of the conflict, students were exposed to major Jewish and Palestinian works by Amos Oz, AB Yehoshua, Sayed Kashua, Ghassan Kanafani, Emile Habiby, and many others.
 Odysseus |
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 Jatakamala |
 Dante |
Reading in Masterpieces
Taught in 2010-13, in Hebrew
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The course accompanied a large-scale lecture and was designated for smaller groups of freshmen majoring in Comparative Literature. The aims of the course were to expose the students to the canon while learning how to critically think, read and write about these masterpieces. The syllabus included western classics, from Homer to Dante, but also touched upon the Jatakamala, Rubaayat, parts of the Quran, etc.