Fall 2008 Class Schedule - updated Mar 29, 2009

This course introduces students to the main features of early Arabic literature, from pre-Islamic Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman influences through the Middle Ages, and culminates in a study of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). We will trace the development of literary forms, including the three main genres of fiction, poetry and drama, while applying a broad range of critical and theoretical approaches. We will also pay attention to the interaction of Arabic literature with art, music and philosophy. No prerequisites.

*Course is taught in French*

This course will examine some of the major historical events, as well as social and cultural developments, throughout the turbulent 19th century and into the early 20th century in France. The period covered is one of political upheaval and experimentation that includes two empires, two monarchies, and two republics, often ushered in by a coup d'état or a revolution, and accompanied by attempts at continental and colonial expansion. It is also a period of dramatic scientific, technological, and industrial innovation and growth. "Progress" is the watchword. In the arts, there is revolt against academic classicism. Passionate esthetic debates erupt between the advocates and adversaries of romanticism, orientalism, realism, naturalism, mysticism, decadence, and the avant-garde movements in the early 1900s. Daily life is transformed with the triumph of the bourgeoisie through phenomena such as urbanization, education, and secularization, not to mention the multiplication of newspapers, cafés, and dance venues.

The class will also read theoretical texts that will complement the primary reading. Some of the main topics of study/discussion of this course will be:

* Consumption and culture.

* Globalization and culture.

* Globalization and the transformation of civil society.

* Globalization and the changing of the nation state.

* Globalization/consumption and social inequality (and ensuing practices of violence).

The twentieth century witnessed enormous social change in Middle East. We will analyze Arabic literature in light of the effect of the World Wars, the beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the sweeping current of republicanism, socialism and neo-nationalism. Students will become familiar with major literary figures of the Arab world, and textual analysis of specific work will be carried out within a framework of feminist theory, post-modern reading and psychoanalysis. Special attention will be paid to the development of Arabic cinema as a means of exploring the clash between censorship and extremism versus intellectual liberalism in contemporary Arabic societies. No prerequisites.