New Courses in MESALC
(Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures)

ARTR 335
ARTR 535

Survey of Arab Women Literature
Hanadi al-Samman
TR 9:30-10:45
This course will offer a panoramic overview of contemporary Arab women literature. Selected texts belong to writers who come from different Arab countries ranging from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula. They are English translations of Arabic or French texts and they cover all literary genres starting from personal letters, memoirs, speeches, fiction, drama, poetry, to journalistic articles and interviews written over the last century.  We will start our discussion with a historical survey of women's position in Arabic society, culture, and Islamic religion.  We will revisit the classical and medieval literary attempts of both al-Khansâ’ and Shahrazâd, then examine contemporary Arab female literature with a primary emphasis on women's attempts to challenge Arab patriarchy in order to carve their own spaces as independent writers.  Special emphasis will be given to the issues of Arab female authorship as it relates to oral literature and subjectivity theory, and to the question of Arab Feminism as a parallel/counterpart to Western Feminism. Ultimately we hope to shed some light on the rewriting, reconstructive message of contemporary Arab women literature, its important contribution to a new national consciousness that preaches peace poetics, as well as its unique contribution to various literary genres such as:  war narratives, autobiography, science fiction, and travel genres. Some of the writers that we will be addressing include: Ghada Al-Samman, Hanan A1-Shaykh, Fadia Faqir, Samar Attar, Hoda Barakat, Nawal El Saadawi, Evelyne Accad, Etel Adnan, and Hamida Na’na.   No knowledge of Arabic is necessary, all texts will be offered in English.  A mid-term and a final paper along with oral presentations and quizzes are required from undergraduates, graduate students, however, need to submit a 20-page research paper.
No pre-requisites.

MESA 101

Literatures of the Middle East and South Asia
Richard Cohen
MW 13:00-13:50 + Discussion sections
An introductory course in non-Western literatures that emphasizes genres with no clear Western equivalents. The reading list varies from year to year, but the texts, read in translation, usually come from Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Tamil, and Urdu.
No pre-requisites. Satisfies Non-Western Requirement.

MESA 212

Iranian Languages Past and Present
Youli Ioannesyan
TR 17:00-18:15
This introductory course initiates the students into the Iranian languages and dialects from a historic and modern perspective.  Iranian languages have been spread throughout the ages over the vast territories of modern Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.  The latter is a region which has contributed greatly to the cultural development of humanity and its history.  The region has been the birthplace of several religions, great philosophers and thinkers and has given rise to a world popular literature.  An outstanding feature of the Iranian languages is that they have preserved their continuity, while Iranians have kept their ethnical identity since ancient times, despite the change of several civilizations in the region.  Though the focus of the course is on languages it addresses a wide range of cultural, ethnographical and historic issues, which make it also useful for students with other than purely linguistic interests.
No pre-requisites.

MESA 221

Introduction to Islam in South Asia
Richard Cohen
MW 15:30-16:45
To contemplate the history of Islam in the South Asian subcontinent is to expose oneself to a delectable table of contradictions, paradoxes, dipoles of ‘traditional’ socio-religious behavior. So complex is the religious history of South Asia, one is challenged at every step to define and refine one’s understanding of ‘community’, ‘communalism’, ‘self defense’, ‘politics’, ‘conversion’, ‘personal and community identity’, ‘military strategy’, ‘taxation’, ‘the economy’, and ultimately the emergence of the globalizing ‘modern’ world.
No pre-requisites. Also available as RELI 221

MESA 374

Turkey: Orientalism and Modernity
Sue Ann McCarty
MW 18:00-19:15
Many people-Turkish citizens, Orientalists, writers, scholars and others-have reflected on the idea of Turkey as a flexible zone between an imagined "East" and "West," with all of the stereotypes that those categories imply. This class challenges those categories by exploring various themes in Turkish life from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the present. As its name implies, the class is divided into three sections. It begins in the late Ottoman period with the writings of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Evliya Celebi and their impact on European Orientalists, as well as readings from Edward Said's Orientalism. The second part of the class explores the dramatic changes that took place in everyday Turkish life as a result of the reforms introduced by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic. The final part of the class explores the long-term impact of these changes and the way they shape the experience and practice of Turkish modernity. Using novels by Turkish authors, films and academic texts, we explore themes including the contemporary urban-rural divide, issues of class and gender, urban squatter settlements, and Turkey's current effort to join the European Union.
No pre-requisites. Also available as ANTH 374