African 445: Politics in Arabic Literature and Film

Our Arabic seminar explores creative techniques for understanding politics. We investigate the relationship between cultural status (e.g., education level, social grouping, literacy) and political power. The focus will be on late modernity, although many of the sources we study will deal with “Classical” Arabic ideals such as turath (cultural heritage) and kalam (speculative theology). The great majority of readings and A/V texts, as well as all of our class discussion, will be in Arabic. Finer points of grammar, morphology, and compositional style also make up our semester of study.

This course is open to students who have completed three years of Arabic study. Heritage speakers who wish to enroll without prerequisite coursework are generally welcome: please contact the instructor before start of semester.

Authors/materials will include: Moustapha Akkad, Hoda Barakat, Mohamed Choukri, Nawal al-Saadawi