Literature of Syria

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

We will study in this class Syria’s contemporary literature, including poetry, short story, novel and play. Several poetic texts for a number of Syrian contemporary poets, such as Adonis, Nizar Qabbani, Mohammed Omran, and Mohammed Maghout will be discussed and analyzed. Short stories for a some of the most important Syrian short story writers, such as Zakaria Tamer and Walid Ekhlasi, will also be studied. One Syrian contemporary novel by Khalid Khalifa and one Syrian contemporary play by Saadallah Wannous, will be used to further discuss the Syrian short stories and theater. We will introduce each of these texts by providing theoretical introductions that would enable the students to have an overview of the historical background of these literature styles in Syria, it’s most prominent issues and distinguished writers. At the end of the discussion of each literature style, students will be assigned to write a brief critique paper about this style drawing on texts that we didn’t study in the class. At the end of the semester, students will be assigned to write an extended paper on Syria’s modern literature (poetry, story, play or a novel).