JWST 380 - Middle Eastern Prison Literature

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
This course explores modern and contemporary Middle Eastern literary works–plays, poems, long and short fiction, and memoires–produced in and associated with prisons. We’ll begin by laying theoretical and historical foundations for understanding the modern prison as a site of social control and dehumanization, which has paradoxically given rise to the powerful literary traditions and motifs we will proceed to survey. Arabic and Hebrew texts comprise the majority of the course materials; however, they will be placed in dialogue with European and other Western writing. Readings in English translation.

This course is cross-listed with CMPL-380