ENG 366 WAR AND PEACE: MOD MIDDLE EAST

WORDS OF WAR AND PEACE: LITERARY GRENADES AND OLIVE BRANCHES IN THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST

The Middle East forms the centerpiece of our news: refugees in Syria, ISIS, the nuclear deal with Iran. The literary and cultural context for these issues is less familiar. The course examines how, in climates of political upheaval and diplomatic hostility,  literature has played a role in dividing or uniting people. Authors include Naguib Mahfouz, Salman Rushdie, Elias Khoury, Forugh Farrokhzad, Mahmoud Darwish, Yehuda Amichai, Marjane Satrapi, Joe Sacco, and the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo.