ARAB 325: Major Arab Writers/Stories
ARAB 325-004: Major Arabic Writers
(Summer 2017)
08:30 AM to 12:00 PM M
Art & Design Building 2026
Section Information for Summer 2017
Few artistic genres are more pronounced today in the Arab world than Science-Fiction. From digital comic books, to movies, music videos, and video-gaming, the region has witnessed a surge in the genre over the past decade. Writers are at the forefront of this boom with people like Hassan Blasim (Iraq), Ahmed Sa‘dawi (Iraq), Na’il al-Tukhi (Kuwait), Boualem Sansal (Algeria), Fadi Zaghmut (Jordan), Bassima ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (Egypt), and Muhamad Rabi‘a, all receiving major international acclaim for their novels in recent years.
This class will read a selection of the most prominent works in recent years while also looking back to key stepping stones in the long arc of speculative fiction in the Arab world over the past century. More specifically, the marked arrival of Arab sci-fi in close proximity to the Arab uprisings of 2010/2011 requires a degree of reckoning with the current intellectual currency of “Utopia” as such—what Fredric Jameson described as a “‘socio-economic subset of Science Fiction.’” To that end this class will focus on those works of speculative fiction that most acutely engage the notion of alternative or future worlds.
No prior background is required for enrollment. The course is taught in English. Some familiarity with the Arab world is welcome though not required.
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Course Information from the University Catalog
Credits: 3
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.
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