CMLIT 7Introduction to Middle Eastern Literatures

3 credits · Comparative Literature · Penn State

This course provides an introduction to the diverse literatures of the region known as the Middle East. Through a study of translations of works from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hebrew and other languages as well as Anglophone Middle Eastern literatures, students will study Middle Eastern literatures and cultures in their diversity. Approaching works from the modern period in the context of shared histories of modernization, secularization, postcolonial nation-building, and globalization, this course will emphasize important thematic continuities across modern literatures of the region. Though the focus will be on the modern period, students will also be introduced to the rich literary networks of the so-called premodern era, exploring past literary connections and their legacies for the present. The relationship between literature, film, and other media may also be explored. Topics to be discussed may include Orientalism, Middle Eastern refugee and migration literatures, cross-cultural encounters, women¿s and minority writings, prison and protest literatures, petrofiction and climate fiction. This course fulfills the General Education Humanities requirement, the International Cultures requirement, and the Bachelor of Arts Humanities and Other Cultures requirement.