ARAB 095. Arabic Literature: Society and Scandal

(Cross-listed as LITR 095A)
Societal scandals and controversies surrounding Arabic literary works have arisen across the Middle East and North Africa throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The free expression fostered in the literary field frequently confronts the realities of state censors and other forces in society, such as political ideologies or religious orthodoxies. In this course we aim to contextualize and study these scandals and controversies by closely analyzing the literary works at their source, as well as the debates and transgressive acts they elicited. From intentional omissions in translation, to debates surrounding the portrayal of homosexual characters, to assassination attempts on authors lives, this course will focus on a number of important inflection points across the Middle East and North Africa in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will study works by authors from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, including Taha Hussein, Naguib Mahfouz, Mohamed Choukri, Nawal El Saadawi, Saud Alsanousi, Alaa Al Aswani, Rashid al-Daif, Rajaa al-Sanea, amongst others. This course will be conducted in English, using texts translated from Arabic.
Prerequisite: This course is open to all students, no prerequisites are required.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for CPLT
Spring 2025. Smith.
Catalog chapter: Modern Languages and Literatures: Arabic
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/arabic

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