Course Description (from course catalogue)
“In this course we will discuss various forms of Arabic literary prose from the end of the 19th century to the present. The course traces the rise of prose forms such as memoirs and travel journals that later developed into the novel form with prominent writers such as Yahya Haqqi, Naguib Mahfouz, and Tayyib Salih. The focus will be to study the manner in which the novel reflects major changes and transitions in Arab culture and society.”
Please note that the description above is largely boilerplate and that the syllabus for ARBC212-f15 will depart somewhat from previous iterations of this course. This time around, we will focus exclusively on the Arabic novel in the 20th and 21st centuries, examining the growth of this literary genre in relation to the aesthetic, intellectual, and political movements that have defined modern Arab society and culture. In order to better contextualize the modern phenomenon of long-form, prose fiction in Arabic, we will spend the first two weeks of class looking into its predecessors in the Arabic literary tradition as well as familiarizing ourselves with the basic principles of narratology.
Course Goals
The primary goal of this course is to give you a clear sense of how and why the Arabic novel emerged in the early 20th century and subsequently assumed a central position in Arabic literary production. Such knowledge necessarily rests upon an awareness of social and political developments in the modern Arab world, which will be introduced in service to our central topic of inquiry. The novels selected for study are regarded by Arab critics and non-specialists alike as some of the finest and most significant examples of their type. Your encounter with them will enable you to engage with literary-minded colleagues from the Arab world in conversations about literature as peers, not neophytes.
Secondly, you will develop familiarity with the general techniques and tendencies of modern literary analysis and critique, and with those specific to the appreciation of modern Arabic literature in particular. You will learn to engage with literary texts with an eye to such aesthetic tendencies as symbolism, social realism, literary commitment, modernism, magical realism, and more. The purpose behind this is not merely to develop an acquaintance with academic jargon, but rather to enrich the experience of delving into another person’s imagination and to better appreciate the social context that shaped it.
Finally, as a college writing course, you will be given ample opportunity to write about literature using the best practices and the tools of modern literary analysis. We will hold three workshops on the art of writing expository prose and practice techniques to polish your writing skills. We can always use a second and third opinion to help us become better, clearer writers; this course will provide a courteous and respectful forum to enable this process. The goal behind this is to develop your ability to persuade though writing: to establish a premise and to support an argument through citation. You will find this skill invaluable regardless of your chosen field of study or career after you graduate. Good persuasive writing is not simply a question of choosing fancy words and avoiding dangling particles. Rather, good writing stems from an empathetic, communicative posture that is neither pedantic nor opaque, and hitting the right note is a function of practice, critique, and revision.