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 | 1) Bible. Old Testament: I Kings, I Chronicles; 2) Bible. New Testament: Matthew 12.42 and Luke 11.31; and 3) Koran: Sura 27 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). |
| 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) |