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Middleeasternpoetry.Fall 2014.2 The Middle East in World Poetry MEL 321 (41885), MES 342 (42130), ISL 373 (41790), CL 323 (33910) Fall 2014 MWF 1-2 pm CLA 0.118 Michael Craig Hillmann, Instructor Calhoun 400, 512–475–6606 [email protected], 512–653–5152 (cell) www.academia.edu/Michael Hillmann Fall 2014 Office Hours: MWF 11 am-12 noon, and by appointment Course Description. This Middle East in World Poetry course, which privileges the special status of poetic expression in the region, presents: (1) pre--modern poetic texts originating in the Middle East, (2) Western poetry that engages experiences in and images of the Middle East, and (3) contemporary self- views of Middle Easterners from Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, etc. Middle East in World Poetry involves the close and appreciative reading of poetry in English or in English translation with “Middle Eastern” forms, images, content, and themes. Course reading and discussion take place in the context of relevant concepts and themes, among them: culture, the Middle East, Middle Eastern Islam, cultural and political nationalism, academic Orientalism and Orientalist art, Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) and critiques of the book, post-colonialism, definitions of poetry, Romanticism(s), and practical English/American approaches to reading poetry from A.C. Bradley’s in “Poetry for Poetry’s Sake” (1901) to Perrine’s Sound and Sense (1950s to 2000s). The course aims to: (1) lead to a new definition of the Middle East inspired by relevant poetry composed in or translated into the English language; (2) suggest cultural insights that poetry can offer adults in today's multicultural world, in this case insights into perceptions on the part of English- speaking poets about the Middle East and culture-specific self-revelation by Middle Easterners through their Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, and Turkish poems, and poems in English; (3) help increase facility and confidence in independent reading of and reactions to culturally charged poetic texts; and (4) help improve skills in one’s writing about writing and in editing one’s own writing. In the last-named regard, 42% of the course grade relates to writing; i.e., eight, two-page papers on assigned poems, with peer review of sample statements from each assignment in the session following assignment submission; and a book review submitted in draft and critiqued and then submitted in revised form. Instead of one of the papers on assigned poems, students can choose to submit a poem that they revise throughout the course in response to peer and instructor critiques. Required course texts consist of a book-length guide to the Middle East chosen by the student and English-language poems and English translations of Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish poems, along with critical writing, compiled in a packet called “The Middle East in World Poetry: A Course Syllabus,” available on the course Blackboard. The selection of Arab and Afghan texts has benefited substantially from recommendations by comparatist critic Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh and suggestions by Arabic literature specialist Tarek El-Ariss and Hebrew literature specialist Karen Grumberg. The course packet also includes a guide to Internet resources on course poets and poems, a bibliography of biographical and critical writing on course texts and authors, and relevant studies on the Middle East. Course Grades. The bases for course grades are: almost daily open-book exercises (8% of the course grade), class participation and oral reports on assigned poems (10%), eight two-page essays on assigned poems (4% each), a book review on on an approved book about the Middle East (10%), and two review tests (20% each). The course grading scale is: A (93-100), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D + (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), and F (0-59). The course has no final examination. Students who miss a class, an open-book exercise, a recitation, an oral report, or a review test in order to observe a religious holy day will have the opportunity to complete the missed work. Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone) or http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd.oard. The Middle East in World Poetry Course Texts Texts are numbered as they appear in the Documents folder on the course Blackboard. Other texts may be added to Blackboard as needed. medieval Middle Eastern texts 1.1 “Genesis” and “Psalms,” The Hebrew Bible, King James Version (1611). 1.2 Ode by Imru al-Qays (6th c. CE). 1.3 “Poetic” passages from The Koran (650s), translated by Anonymous and N.J. Dawood. 1.4 Poems by al-Mutanabbi (915-265). 1.5 “Caravan Ode” by Farrokhi (d. 1037). 1.6 from Shâhnâmeh [Book of Kings] by Ferdowsi (940-1020). 1.7 from The Arabian Nights. 1.8 …………………………………….. 1.9 …………………………………….. 1.10 The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) (5th edition, 1879) by Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883). 1.11 …………………………………….. 1.12 …………………………………….. 1.13 “Ode to Ctesiphon” by Khâqâni (1121/2-1190). 1.14 “Exordium to Spiritual Couplets and ghazals by Jalâloddin Rumi (1207-1273). 1.15 …………………………………….. 1.16 Poems by Ibn al-’Arabi (1165-1220). 1.17 Poems by Sa’di (c.1215-c1290). 1.18 Ghazals by Hâfez (c.1320-c.1390). 1.19 Poems by ‘Ali Hariri (1425-1496). 1.20 “Our Trouble” by Ahmad Khâni (1651-1707). Western texts 2.1 An Ode (Odes, Book 1: 38) by Horace (65-8 BCE). 2.2 “A Persian Song” (1771) by William Jones 1746-1794). 2.3 The Revolt of Islam (1818) and “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). 2.4 Thalaba the Destroyer (1801) by Robert Southey (1774-1843). 2.5 …………………………………….. 2.6 …………………………………….. 2.7 “Kubla Khan” (1799, 1816) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1771-1834). 2.8 “The Giaour” (1813) and “The Destruction of Sennacherib” (1815). by George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824). 2.9 …………………………………….. 2.10 “Lalla Rookh” (1817) by Thomas Moore (1779-1852). 2.11 “Tamerlane” (1817) and “Al Aaraaf” (1829) by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). 2.12 [on Saladin (Salâhuddin Ayyubi)]...Otho the Great (1819) by John Keats (1795-1821). 2.13 …………………………………….. 2.14 “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). 2.15 “Abou Ben Adhem” (1818?) by James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). 2.16 “Certain Maxims of Hafiz” (1898) by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). 2.17 Poem addressed to Sa’di by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). 2.18 Sohrab and Rustum (1853) by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). 2.19 “The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi” (1854) by Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890). 2.20 Constantinople: Eight Poems (1915) by Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962). 2.21 “The Second Coming” (1919) and “Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats 1865-1939). 2.22 “Zion” (1914-1918) by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). 2.23 …………………………………….. 2.24 “Lepanto” by G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). 2.25 …………………………………….. 2.26 The Spoils (1951) and “A Song for Rustam” (1952) by Basil Bunting (1900-1985). 2.27 …………………………………….. 2.28 “Jonah” (1918) “The Persian Version” (1938-45) by Robert Graves (1895-1985). 2.29 …………………………………….. 2.30 “What Must Be Said” (2012) by Günter Grass (b. 1927). post-medieval Middle Eastern texts 3.1 “Majnun Layla” (1995) by Qassim Haddad (b. 1948). Bahrain. 3.2 “Awake and Rise Up, O Arabs” by Ibrahim al-Yazidi. Ottoman Empire. 3.3 “A Sad State of Freedom” “About My Poetry” by Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963). Turkey. 3.4 “A Poet’s Voice XV” by Khalil Gibran (1883-1931). Lebanon. 3.5 “Exile” and “Football” by Abdulla Pashew (b. 1946). Kurdistan. 3.6. “Who Am I?” by “Cigerxwin” Sheikmous Hasan (1901 or 3-1984). Kurdistan. 3.7 “Identity Card” (1965) by Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008). Palestine etc. 3.8 “O Jewel-Studded Land” (1962/3 and “I Feel Sorry for the Garden” by Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967). Iran. 3.9 “The Ending of the Shahnameh” (1957) by Mehdi Akhavan-e Sales (1928-1990). Iran. 3.10 ”Qom” (1953) and “False Dawn” (1982) by Nader Naderpur (1929-2000). Iran. 3.11 “In This Dead End” by Ahmad Shamlu (1925-2000). Iran. 3.12 “An Arab Shepherd Is Looking for His Goat on Mount Zion” and “Memorial Day for the War Dead”by Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000). Israel 3.13. “Desert Poetics” and “Passover 1957” by Karen Alkalay-Gut (b.1945). Israel. 3.14 “Handcuffs–A Street Song” by Ronny Someck (b. 1951). Iraq-Israel. 3.15 “Who Is a Jew and What Kind of a Jew?” by Sami Shalom Chetrit (b. 1960). Morocco-Israel. 3.16 “Jerusalem” and “Damascus, What Are You Doing to Me?” by Nizar Qabbani (1923-1988). Syria. 3.17 ”Desert” and “Season of Tears” by Adonis (b. 1930). Syria. 3.18 This Is My Name by Adonis. 3.19 Victims of a Map by Mahmud Darwish (1941-2008) and Samih al-Qasim (b. 1939). Palestine. 3.20 “Go Out from Yemen” (2011) by Adel Adlani. Yemen. 3.21 “Six Poems” by Amal Al-Jubouri (b. 1967). Iraq. 3.22 Hagar before the Occupation Hagar after the Revolution by Amal Al-Jubouri. 3.23 “Seven Reasons Why I Should Die.” Hâshem Sha’bâninezhâd (1982-2014). Iran. 3.24 “An Arab at Ben Gurion Airport” by Marwan Makhoul. Israel. 3.25 Poetry of the Taliban. Afghanistan. 3.26 I Am the Beggar of the World. Poetry by Afghan Woman. Afghanistan..
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