Course:	LIT 148  Labor and Migration in Arabic Literature
Professor:	Dina Ramadan
CRN:	90742	Schedule:	Mon  Wed     10:20 AM - 11:40 AM Aspinwall 302
Distributional Area:	FL Foreign Languages and Lit	Class cap	22
Credits:	4

Cross-listed:  Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies

Questions of migration, exile, and displacement have been central to the development of the (post)colonial Arabic literary tradition. Tayeb Salih’s Seasons of Migration to the North, widely considered the most important Arabic novel of the last century, charts Mustafa Said’s journey taking him further and further from Sudan, and the frustrations and impossibility of homecoming. While the effects of the expulsions of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) and the further displacement of the 1967 Naksa (setback) on the evolution of Arabic prose and poetry are widely recognized, questions surrounding labor, its precarities, and migrations are largely understudied. How for example, does the intersection of a booming oil economy with a displaced and transient workforce, reshape the cultural map of the region and beyond? Rather than treat the questions of labor and (forced) migration as separate, in this course we will look at them as intertwined and interdependent. By focusing on Arabic literary production from the second half of the 20^th century, we will ask how such works produce a language and aesthetic of displacement and estrangement, one that is able to challenge the hegemony of national boundaries. Finally, we will consider how these literary texts, as well as their authors, travel and migrate to speak to different audiences and from new and shifting centers. Literary texts will be supplemented by theoretical and historical material and will be accompanied by regular film screenings. All readings will be in English. This course is part of the Liberal Arts Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement and Education initiative. This course is part of the World Literature course offering.

 

Course:	LIT 2055  Throw Away Your Books and Rally in the Streets: Modern Japanese Avant-Gardes
Professor:	Nathan Shockey
CRN:	90263	Schedule:	Tue  Thurs    2:00 PM - 4:20 PM Olin Languages Center 115
Distributional Area:	FL Foreign Languages and Lit	Class cap:	22
Credits:	4

Cross-listed:  Asian Studies; Experimental Humanities

In this class, we will trace a prismatic cascade of experimental movements in Japanese literary, visual, plastic, and performance arts and architecture, from the turn of the 20th century through the present. The organizing concept of the course is the critic Hanada Kiyoteru's idea of sà´gà´ geijitsu = "art as synthesis" - as a means to understand the mutually productive movements of textual, visual, haptic, and auditory media within their global and transnational contexts. We will begin with prewar Japanese re-imaginations of Euro-American historical avant-gardes and political vanguards, then follow a fragmented trajectory that includes movements such as Fluxus, Neo-Dadaism, and New Wave Cinema, the political provocations of Hi-Red Center, the Sogetsu Art Center scene, divergent trends in photographic experimentation, the Underground Theater of the 1970s, architectural Metabolism, haute couture fashion, noise music, new millennium pop art, contemporary political protest, and much more. Throughout, we will consider the complex dialectics at play between aesthetic and political avant-gardes at play on the razor's edge of reification in the commercial sphere.  This course is part of the World Literature course offering.

 

Course:	LIT 2057  Youth in Precarious Japan
Professor:	Wakako Suzuki
CRN:	90264	Schedule:	Mon    Wed   3:50 PM – 5:100 PM Olin Language Center 208
Distributional Area:	LA Literary Analysis in English D+J Difference and Justice	Class cap	18
Credits:	4

Cross-listed:  Asian Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies

This course explores the theme of youth and adolescence in literary and cinematic works from late 19th-century to contemporary Japan. It examines how the development of industrial capitalism, Japanese colonialism, World War II, the US occupation, the regional Cold War order, the Japanese economic miracle, and the recent recession have been presented differently when we employ the perspective of youth. The course introduces the following key topics: sexuality, romance, friendship, same-sex love, education, family, ethnic identity, disability and anxiety. Particular issues that young people wrestle with have varied in each period. However, youth and adolescents have continuously grappled with the idea of "social identities" that navigate them into mature adulthood or socially expected gender norms, such as masculinity and femininity. Young people's hopes, dreams, disillusionment, frustrations, and struggles will be examined through selected literary and cinematic works. We also consider the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexual identity in Japanese society but also across countries from the perspective of Difference and Justice. The historical approach to literary and cinematic works provides comparative context to bridge our understanding of representation and the social context negotiated by creators and recipients. Readings include works by Natsume Soseki, Higuchi Ichiyo, Kunikida Doppo, Izumi Kyoka, Tanizaki Junichiro, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Oe Kenzaburo, Yoshimoto Banana, and Murakami Haruki. Cinematic works include works by Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, Miyazaki Hayao, and Koreeda Hirokazu. We also expand our horizons to music, visual images, and magazines.  This course is part of the World Literature course offering.

 

Course:	LIT 245  Palestinian Literature in Translation
Professor:	Elizabeth Holt
CRN:	90552	Schedule:	Mon  Wed     2:00 PM - 3:20 PM Olin Languages Center 118
Distributional Area:	LA Literary Analysis in English	Class cap:	18
Credits:	4

Cross-listed:  Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies

This course is a survey of Palestinian literature, from the early Arabic press in Palestine to contemporary Palestinian fiction.  We will read short stories, poetry and novels by authors including Ghassan Kanafani, Emile Habiby, Samira 'Azzam, Anton Shammas, Mahmoud Darwish, Sahar Khalifeh, Fedwa Tuqan, and Elias Khoury.  All literary texts will be read in translation. This course is part of the World Literature course offering.