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hmed Saadawi, Frankenstein fi baghdād

hmed Saadawi, Frankenstein fi baghdād

Ahmed Naji

Ahmed Naji

Basma Abd al-Aziz

Basma Abd al-Aziz

1

1

nadia

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

said

levi

levi

duras

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

Palestine Joe Sacco

Bethlehem

Bethlehem

A B Yehoshua

A B Yehoshua

Arab Labor

Arab Labor

Emile Habibi

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

Odysseus

Jatakamala

Jatakamala

Dante

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. 

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