Banned Books of Middle East

From Danish cartoons and fatwas to student protests and the stabbing of a Nobel laureate, in this course we will study several literary scandals that have rocked the Middle East since the mid-twentieth century. Our focus will be not only on the content and form of the texts themselves, but also on the historical, political, social, and cultural circumstances in which literature comes to have meaning for particular social and religious communities. Texts by Naguib Mahfouz, Sonallah Ibrahim, Salman Rushdie, Ahmed Naji, Mohammed Choukri, Magdy al-Shafee, Susan Abulhawa.