Written Homework Assignment #3: Zaynab and Broken Wings
- As you read Broken Wings and Zaynab for Wednesday’s class, please consider the questions below and write a 1-page response (Times 12, one inch margins) to the question assigned to you. Be prepared to share your response in class and to discuss the questions not assigned to you as well.
- Review the documents on the “Best Practices: Writing” page on the course website and incorporate as much of the wonderful writing and elegant vocabulary you find there into this assignment (as long as doing so does not “stress” your thoughts or deform your writing).
- Questions:
- Broken Wings by Khalil Jibran is generally attributed to a “romantic” tendency or phase of Arabic literature that flourished during the first part of the 20th As such, it is therefore viewed as lacking the “maturity” of the fully modern novel by literary critics and historians, Arab and otherwise. This call is certainly a subjective one, yet there is a basis to the claim that the works of Khalil Jibran are “out of step” with the literary tastes that have prevailed from the 1930’s onward in the East, West, and virtually every place in between. Having read a modest selection from Khalil Jibran’s quasi-autobiographical novel, Broken Wings, would you agree with the majority assessment that Jibran’s prose fiction grates against modern and/or contemporary literary tastes? Or do you think that this judgment is wrong? In short, did you like this reading and find it compelling, or not? Please explain the reasons and provide direct citations from the text to justify your opinions. (Mayed, Clair, Becca, Rubi)
- To what degree may Zaynab be described as a work of social/political engagement? Do you believe that the author of Zaynab, Muhammad Haykal, achieves the “right” balance between social commitment – that is, literary activism on behalf of the oppressed – with the aesthetic requirements of imaginary fiction (compelling characters, narrative “flow”, integrated language, etc.)? In other words, did you enjoy reading this text and feel compelled by an empathetic portrait of the social conditions and relations described? Please provide direct citations from the text itself to bolster your arguments. (Lorenzo, Oakley, Jordan, Kizzy)
- How are Broken Wings and Zaynab different from the types of pre-modern prose we’ve encountered in this class? In what ways do these two novels represent a fundamentally new type of literature? Assuming, for the moment, that they are fundamentally different from Arabic literature prior to the nahda, how might we consider these texts as products of it? Please refer to and cite other readings we’ve encountered in this course, including Di-Capua’s history of the nahda (Nathaliah, Toni, Alex)
Extra Credit: Can you think of any novels in another language’s literary tradition that resemble in any way either the topic or tone of Broken Wings and/or Zaynab? How do they rank in your estimation?