Arabic Gulf Literature

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course has the following objectives: -1-To introduce the students to a contemporary, innovative, and revolutionary literature from different parts of the Arabian Gulf, especially from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and the Arab Emirates. -2-To analyze in this literature the profound dilemma between the quest for identity and the desire to imitate the West. One finds a disturbing malaise in these texts. Authors torn between two worlds strive to make sense of their lives. They possess almost all the technological tools of the West but remain imprisoned in an archaic social structure that limits their quest. -3- To underline the extreme importance accorded in these novels, short stories, and poems to gender issues, especially in women’s writing. Women from the Arabian Gulf endeavor to make their voices heard despite the Shari’a’s limitations. -4. To underscore in these texts the quest for democracy, freedom, and equality. There is in all these works an overarching and painful need for change. The authors stress that it is essential to get out of the social status quo and move forward to a different way of life. -5- Finally, the teacher will follow an interdisciplinary approach: the students are invited to interpret the texts from the textual analysis perspective, history, and comparative literature among other approaches.