Middle East Essay

Please cite properly all the information you use, and answer the essay questions clearly and with good evidence. If you use any extra outside sources please cite them properly.

Thank you!

Essay topics: 50%

Choose Three of the topics below. For each write a formal essay that is between 900-1200 words. Double-space and proofread carefully. If you?ve written on any of these topics for your midterm and you still would like to write about them here, make sure to use other primary works to discuss. Choose a range of works (minimum 3, different genres) to help you formulate a complex and nuanced thesis. Note that these are broad topics. You still need to narrow them down to have an argument.

2) Write an essay on the ways Arab American writers respond to orientalist representations of Arabs and Muslims. What strategies do they use? Which ones are effective, which ones are less so?

5) How does the form (narrative voice, structure, language etc) of The Book of Khalid and Koolaids relate to some of the themes in these two books.

6) In one of her poems, Suhair Hammad writes, ?Over there is over here.? Write an essay showing how this idea is treated by some Arab-American writers.

Course Description

What is Arab-American literature? What does it mean to be Arab American in pre and post 9/11 America? How do Arab American writers and artists negotiate identity, home, and exile? How do they engage issues of gender, sexuality, race, terrorism, and war? What does religion, particularly Islam, play in these engagements? This course will begin to answer these questions by offering a survey of Arab-American literature from its beginnings until now. Through this literature we will seek to understand the particularities of the American experience as it relates to different generations of Arab Americans and also its continuities with other ethnic groups. We will do this by reading poetry, short stories, novels, and autobiographies. We will also view films, music videos, and stand up comedy. Readings will include works by Amin Rihani, Suheir Hammad, Lisa Majaj, Noami Shihab Nye, Mohja Kahf, Rabeeh Alamdedine, Randa Jarrar, and Edward Said, among others. Films will include The Planet of the Arabs, Amreeka, and Detroit Unleaded.

Required Texts: Available at GMU bookstore and elsewhere.

Mohja Kahf, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2006.

Rabih Alameddine, Koolaids, Grove Press, Reprint Edition, 2015.

Laila Halabi, Once In the Promised Land: A Novel. Beacon Press, 2008.

Other readings will be made available as pdfs on blackboard. You can find them under Course Content in folders bearing the author?s name or title of the piece.

Bring to class a printed copy of the primary material we are discussing

Films and other visuals: (to view in class or at home)

Jackie Salloum, Planet of the Arabs and Arabs a Go-Go

Shereen Deabis, Amreeka

Rola Nashef, Detroit Unleaded

I Exist: Voices from the Middle Eastern Gay and Lesbian Community

Axis of Evil Comedy Tour

Fordson: Faith, Fasting, and Football

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

Nick Dembowski, T.V?s Promised Land

Edward Said, On Orientalism.

Ann Marie Jacir, Salt of this Sea