Comparative Literature | American Reception of Contemporary Arabic Literature
C370 | 25198 | --
Prof. Salih Altoma
The course will begin with a review of factors which contributed to
a wider circulation and translation of modern Arabic literature in
the United States since the early 1970s. Among the factors to be
briefly assessed are: Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), feminist
studies and the1988 Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Najib
Mahfuz. The main body of the course will be devoted to the study of
selected works (in translation) by noted writers (men and women)
from several Arab countries: Egypt :( Najib Mahfuz, Nawal al-
Sa‘dawi, Radwa Ashur and Latifah al-Zayyat), Iraq :( Fu’ad al-
Takarli and Sa‘di Yusuf), Lebanon: (Hanan al-Shaykh), Palestine:
(Mahmud Darwish, Sahar Khalifah, and Ghassan Kanafani), Saudi
Arabia/Jordan: (Abd al-Rahman Munif) and Syria: (Ghadah al-Samman).
Grades will be based on a combination of a mid-term exam, three
short papers/or class presentations, a term paper (graduate students
only) and attendance.
**This course satisfies A&H and CS requirements.