New Course Offerings -- Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures

ARAB 2010

NEW SECTION of Intermediate Arabic I
Miral el-Tahawy
MW 2:00-2:50 & TR 2:00-3:15

Continues training in modern standard Arabic, with emphasis on speaking, comprehension, writing, and reading. The method of teaching primarily follows the proficiency-based approach to language learning.  Prerequisite: for ARAB 201: ARAB 102 or equivalent, or instructor permission; for ARAB 202: ARAB 201 or equivalent, or instructor permission.

ARAB 3810

ARAB 5810

Students are introduced to twentieth-century Arabic fiction, and to the varied genres of prose including letters, memoirs, short stories, travelogues, and novels.  Topics include autobiography, war and nation construction, fantasy, and political and sexual identity crises. Students become acquainted with the different schools of modern Arabic literary criticism, and learn to analyze texts using critical analysis and specific theoretical terminology. Prerequisite: ARAB 3020 or equivalent, or instructor permission.

ARAB 5850

Media Arabic is a fourth year level language & culture course that aims at honing linguistic skills in Arabic language and founding a solid cultural background. As for the linguistic skills, it aims to cover the most important keywords and vocabulary, and to introduce the writing style in the domains of daily news, politics, economics, and social ideologies. Analyzing up-to-date journalistic essays is the core task, plus discussing the daily headlines selected from various newspapers. The last 20 minutes of every session is dedicated to watching and discussing up-to-date mini-news bulletins and clips in Arabic.  In addition, the course aims to train the students to be a direct receiver-researcher of the Arabic news even before it gets translated into American media. Also, it informs the students how to find general online press and news websites in Arab countries and how to build the habit of utilizing audiovisual broadcasting daily. Some specialized websites are visited to meet various political, economic, and cultural research interests. An important merit of this course is how to access and evaluate the self-representation expressed in the media coming from the developing South compared to that coming from the developed North. Fulfilling the requirements of Media Arabic opens new horizons to conduct up-to-date graduate and undergraduate research and publications.

BENG 1559

This course introduces students to spoken and written Bengali, while providing a cultural understanding of the Indian sub-continent. No prior knowledge of Bengali is required. Subsequent courses will allow students to complete the College Foreign Language Requirement.

BENG 3559

This course provides enrichment in the grammar and discourse patterns of modern Bengali, introducing students with some prior knowledge of the language to the study of literary Bengali. Conducted in Bengali. Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of Bengali or instructor permission.

BETR 2559

This course introduces students to the world of Bengali literature without requiring any prior knowledge of Bengali language. The class is conducted in English, and work is to be read in translation.

Click to see a provisional syllabus.

HETR 3559

RELJ 3559

This course explores Israeli culture and society through the lens of its literature. Beginning with the revival of modern Hebrew and following the formative events of the Israeli experience, we will study a range of fictional works (and poetry) that represent the diverse voices of Israeli self-expression. Readings include S.Y. Agnon, Aharon Appelfeld, Yoel Hoffmann, Etgar Keret, A.B. Yehoshua, Yehudit Hendel, and others.

PERS 3559

PERS 5559

Classical Persian prose has been heralded widely for its wide thematic range and rhetorical significance.  For over a thousand years, the literati have compiled a rich treasury of Persian prose, whose thematic range includes philosophy, religion, history, and other genres.  This course will afford an introductory glimpse into some of the better known works of prose in Persian literature.  Studies of excerpts from a myriad of texts, covering several centuries, will allow for a thorough understanding of Persian prose as a literary style in development.

PETR 3559
SECTION 1

PETR 5559
SECTION 1

Rumi's Mathnavi
Alireza Korangy
TR 12:30-1:45

Mannerisms of Iranian mystical life are a faithful mirror reflection of the texts and the poetics, which so passionately preach them. It is noteworthy that such a discourse will point to a theosophical manifesto that differentiates widely from the philosophies employed by many of the other Sufi circles in the region.  This is due to the many classifications that could only be coined Iranian, whether philologically, historically, philosophically, or linguistically.  The inter-textuality, so predominant in Iranian mysticism points to a rhetoric that is rich and intellectually multifarious.  No other text in Iranian literary history has been more influential in this intellectual complexity than in Rumi’s Mathnavi. Jalal al-Din Rumi personifies mysticism and theosophy in Iran because of the many textual channels it engages and employs. This course will be taught in English and will serve as a good introduction to Sufism in Iran in some ways.

PETR 3559
SECTION 3

PETR 5559
SECTION 3

Gender and Human Rights in Modern Persian Literature
Jasmin Darznik
F 2:00-4:30

How has Persian literature imagined the connections between women’s lives, cultural and political systems, and human rights struggles in modern and contemporary Iranian society?  What are both the potential and the limitations of fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry to elucidate such concepts of “the human,” “freedom of expression,” “political persecution,” and “torture”?  And how have writers responded and/or contributed to recent political upheavals in Iran?  In considering these questions, we will begin our survey with poets Forough Farrokhzad and Simin Behbahani and novelist Simin Daneshvar; progress to contemporary writers Goli Taraghi, Shahrnush Parsipur, and Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi; and conclude with works by Iranian immigrant writers Farnoosh Moshiri, Zohreh Ghahremani, and Shahriar Mandanipour. While this is primarily a literature course, we will often take an interdisciplinary approach to our readings, considering both Iranian family law and international human rights policy and also broadening our discussions with a selection of Iranian documentaries and films.

Travel writing is among the oldest forms of literature especially in Asia. It was seen as a source of enlightenment, a science of ethnology, a mapping of regions and cultures of the world. The mystical as well as the material riches of the Indian subcontinent has drawn an unusual number of travelers from Buddhist pilgrims to Arab geographers to merchant travelers, artists, to ‘colonial’ and post-colonial writers, all of whom have left fascinating accounts of their travel experiences.

The course will undertake an overview of the most well-known travel accounts which will include reading excerpts from selected writings. It will include writings of women travelers and artists such as Fanny Parkes. Some of the questions that we will engage will relate to the crucial figure of the traveler; how the picturesque becomes picaresque and under what conditions does travel become a form of translation.

SATR 3110

SATR 5110

This upper level seminar will comprise readings that will cover a broad spectrum of what constitutes the "modern" in Urdu Literature. The course will track the historical beginning of Urdu as a language, its development as a literary language and the complexities of the divide form one to two distinct languages: modern Hindi and modern Urdu.