Arabic Literature for the Classroom: Teaching Methods, Theories, Themes and Texts

344 Pages·2017·3.34 MB·English

by  Mushin J al-Musawi (ed.)

This rich volume with its useful and original focus on teaching makes me wish I
were teaching Arabic literature again. Including chapters by experts on all the
major and many minor genres, the highly stimulating collection will be fruitfully
read by teachers and students of Arabic and world literature.
Geert Jan van Gelder, Laudian Professor of Arabic emeritus, University of Oxford
This critically acute and pedagogically canny collection offers a host of ways to
bring Arabic literature more fully into comparative and world literature classrooms,
as well as in more specifically Middle Eastern courses. These essays offer new
pathways into a wide range of classic and modern texts, in illuminating discussions
that will be full of interest for teachers, scholars, and general readers alike.
David Damrosch, Ernest Bernbaum Professor and Chair, Department of
Comparative Literature, Harvard University
In this fine addition to a growing corpus of such materials, Muhsin al-Musawi and
his colleagues have brought to bear on the teaching of Arabic literature a wide-
ranging, high quality and apposite set of texts, insights, and best practices, designed
to guide both novices and seasoned experts alike.
Shawkat M. Toorawa, Professor of Arabic Literature, Yale University
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ARABIC LITERATURE FOR
THE CLASSROOM
Arabic Literature for the Classroom argues for a more visible presence of Arabic within
the humanities and social sciences, stressing the need to make Arabic literature
available as a world literature, without damaging its own distinctive characteristics.
The 19 chapters that make up this book broach theoretical and methodical cul-
turalconcernsinteachingliteraturesfromnon-Americancultures,alongwithissues
of cross-cultural communication, cultural competency and translation. While some
chapters bring out the fascinating and ever tantalizing connections between Arabic
and the literatures of medieval Europe, others employ specific approaches to
teaching particular texts, potential methodologies, themes and a variety of topics
that can place Arabic widely in a vast swath of academic application and learning.
Topicsthatareexploredinclude gender,race, class,trauma,exile,dislocation,love,
rape, humor, andcinema,aswellas issues that relate towritersand poets, women’s
writing and the so-called nahd.ah (revival) movement in the nineteenth century.
The comparative framework and multi-disciplinary approach mean that this
book injects new life into the field of Arabic Literature. It will therefore be an
essential resource for students, scholars and teachers of Arabic Literature, as well as
for anyone with an interest in learning more about Arabic culture.
Muhsin J. al-Musawi is Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at
Columbia University and the author of many books in English and Arabic,
including Arabic Poetry. His publications cover theory, postcolonial discourse, the
Arabic novel, poetry, medieval Islamic knowledge and modern Arabic poetics.
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ARABIC LITERATURE FOR
THE CLASSROOM
Teaching Methods, Theories, Themes
and Texts
Edited by Muhsin J. al-Musawi
Firstpublished2017
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Names:al-Musawi,MuhsinJ.,editor.
Title:Arabicliteraturefortheclassroom:teachingmethods,theories,themesand
texts/editedbyMuhsinJ.al-Musawi.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2017.|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016049451|ISBN9781138211964(hardback)|ISBN
9781138211971(pbk.)|ISBN9781315451657(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Arabicliterature–Studyandteaching.
Classification:LCCPJ7505.A732017|DDC892.7/071–dc23
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ISBN:978-1-138-21196-4(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-138-21197-1(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-45165-7(ebk)
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byTaylor&FrancisBooks
CONTENTS
List of figures x
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction: Arabic Literature for the Classroom: Teaching Methods,
Theories, Themes and Texts xvi
PARTI
Theory and method 1
1 Proxidistant reading: Toward a critical pedagogy of the nahd.ah
in US comparative literary studies 3
Shaden M. Tageldin
2 Teaching Arab women’s letters 24
Boutheina Khaldi
3 Arab women writers 1980–2010 40
miriam cooke
4 Teaching francophone Algerian women’s literature in a
bilingual French-English context: Creative voices, dissident texts 54
Brinda J. Mehta
5 Approaches to teaching classical Arabic literature in
English translation 72
Jocelyn Sharlet
viii Contents
6 Classical and medieval Arabic literary delights: Towards
teaching the humanistic literature of the Arabs 83
Nizar F. Hermes
7 Language through literature 96
Taoufik Ben Amor
PARTII
Theme 107
8 Lessons from the Maghreb 109
Hoda El Shakry
9 Teaching humor in Arabic literature and film 130
Tarek El-Ariss
10 The art of teaching Arab traumas triumphantly 145
Hanadi Al-Samman
11 The urban gateway: Teaching the city in modern
Arabic literature 156
Ghenwa Hayek
12 Teaching Mahmoud Darwish 171
Jeffrey Sacks
13 Teaching the modernist Arabic poem in translation 189
Muhsin al-Musawi
14 The politics of perception in post-revolutionary
Egyptian cinema 210
Nathaniel Greenberg
PARTIII
Text 223
15 Teaching the maqâmât in translation 225
Roger Allen
16 Ibn Hazm: Friendship, love and the quest for justice 237
Terri DeYoung
17 The Story of Zahra and its critics: Feminism and agency at war 254
Elizabeth M. Holt
18 The Arabic frametale and two European offspring 265
James T. Monroe
Contents ix
19 Teaching the Arabian Nights 287
Muhsin al-Musawi
Afterword: Teaching Arabic literature, Columbia University,
May 2010 312
Jaroslav Stetkevych
Index 315