Required Texts
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1978. ISBN: 9780710000408.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780520054837.
Nieuwkerk, Karin Van. A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780292787209.
Eickelman, Dale F. The Middle East and Central Asia: an Anthropological Approach. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997. ISBN: 9780131230194.
| week # | Topics | Readings and Viewings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction |
Videotape: Algiers (1938) with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr. Videotape: The Battle of Algiers (1967) plus handouts of film scenarios. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, NY: Grove Press, 1965, pp. 38-39. ISBN: 9780802150837. (Handout.) Eickelman, pp. 1-26. |
| 2 | Orientalism |
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1978, part 1, pp. 1-110, and 166-197. ISBN: 9780710000408. ———. “Orientalism Reconsidered.” Cultural Critique 1 (1986): 89-107. al-‘Azm, Sadiq Jalal. “Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse.” Khamsin 8 (1981): 5-27. |
| 3 | Performance: The Egyptian Dancing Girl |
Eickelman, pp. 27-52. Lane, Edward, and Gerard de Nerval. Description de l’Egypte. (Handouts.) |
| 4 | Popular and Folk Culture |
Slyomovics, Susan. “Arabic Folk Literature and Political Expression.” Arab Studies Quarterly 8, no. 2 (1986): 178-85. (PDF) ———. “Arabic Traditions.” As originally published in Teaching Oral Traditions. Edited by John Miles Foley. New York, NY: The Modern Language Assocation, 1998, pp. 266-272. ISBN: 9780873523714. (PDF) Videotape: The Power of the Word. Webber, Sabra. “On Canonicity, Literacy, and Middle Eastern Folk Narrative.” Edebiyat 4, no. 1 (1993): 35-48. |
| 5 | The Performance of Folktale: “The Story of Solomon and Sheba” – Christian, Muslim and Jewish texts |
Handouts: Targum Sheni on The Book of Esther and al-Kisa’i_, Stories of the Prophets_. de Nerval, Gerard. “The Tale of the Queen of the Morning.” In Journey to the Orient. London, UK: Peter Owen Ltd, 1972, pp. 123-213. ISBN: 9780720600117. |
| 6 | Performance and the Koran |
Nelson, Kristina. The Art of Koranic Chant. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1986, pp. 1-51. ISBN: 9780292703674. Audiocassettes of Koranic chanters. Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. Guests of the Sheikh: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. New York, NY: Anchor, 1995, pp. 106-126. ISBN: 9780385014854. (Section on women’s kraya.) Eickelman, pp. 249-323. |
| 7 | Women and Poetic Performances |
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780520054837. Joseph, Terri Brint. “Poetry as a Strategy of Power: The Case of the Riffian Berber Women.” Signs 5, no. 3 (1980): 418-434. Eickelman, pp. 123-173. |
| 8 | Wedding Song |
Videotape: Slyomovics, Amanda Dargan. [Wedding Song] (1990). Slyomovics. Wedding Song, accompanying booklet. (PDF) Eickelman, pp. 174-221. |
| 9 | Professional Entertainers: Solo Females |
Nieuwkerk, Karin Van. A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780292787209. Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock, and Bassima Qattan Bezirgan, ed. “The Umm Kulthum Nobody Knows.” In Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1977, pp. 134-165. ISBN: 9780292750333. Eickelman, pp. 222-247. |
| 10 | Professional Entertainers: Arab Oral Epic Performance |
Slyomovics, Susan. The Merchant of Art: An Oral Epic Egyptian Poet in Performance. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988, pp. 1-35, and 264-268. ISBN: 9780520097377. Videotape: Slyomovics. [The Merchant of Art] (1986). ———. “Approaches to Transcription and Translation of Arab Oral Epics.” (Unpublished English translation of “Methodes de transcription et traduction d’une performance de geste orale arabe.” In Le Conte (1987): 127-139. Edited by Pierre Lyon and Paul Perron. Montreal, Canada: Didier.) (PDF) ———. “Asig Ra’bad: The Passion of Ma’bad.” Oriente Moderno, XXI n.s. (LXXXII), no. 3 (2002). Edited by Claudio lo Jacono of Istituto per l’Oriente C.A. Nallino of Roma (Italy). (PDF) |
| 11 | Islam in America: Parades and Mosques |
Aswad, Barbara. “Arab Americans: Those Who Followed Columbus.” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 27 (July 1993): 5-22. Slyomovics, Susan. “New York City’s Muslim World Day Parade.” In Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora. Edited by Peter Van Der Veer. Philadephia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 157-177. ISBN: 9780812215373. (PDF) Slyomovics. The Muslim World Day Parade and ‘Storefront’ Mosques of New York City." In Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Edited by Barbara Daly Metcalf. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996, pp. 204-216. ISBN: 9780520204034. The Regents of the University of California. ———. “Comparing Mosques to New York City’s Ethnic and Social Clubs.” In NY Masjid: The Mosques of New York. Edited by Jerrilyn Dodds. New York, NY: Storefront for Art and Architecture, 1996, n.p. Catalogue essay with photographs for a museum exhibition, Nov. 30, 1996-Jan. 30, 1997 held at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, powerHouse Books; 1 edition (May 2002). ISBN: 9781576871355. (PDF) |
