MES 17.19 The Arab, the Jew, and the Construction of Modernity

This course uncovers a lost chapter in the history of modernity, engaging the Middle East in a global context both as object of representation and experimentation but also as incubator of new models of community, literary genres, and historical narratives. From Zionism to Baathism, the 20th century has witnessed the implementation of national projects that can be traced to revivalist movements in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe and the Ottoman Empire, intellectual and poets writing in Paris, Vienna, Alexandria, and Beirut, imagining new national identities and literary canons. These essays, novels, manifestos, films, paintings, and poems had transformative effects on the Middle East, redrawing its political and cultural map, and redefining what it means to be a Jew or an Arab in the modern age. Examining this map requires a historical and literary inquiry based in comparative models of analysis and case studies.

Instructor

El-Ariss, Heschel

Cross Listed Courses

HUM 03.06 JWST 42.11

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:INT or LIT; WCult:NW

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Offered

• Spring