The course offers a thematic case study, that changes every year. This offers students the chance to get acquainted with classical and canonical works more in depth, learning how to do close reading as well as placing the text in its historical context. Students also explore different forms of critical receptions and evaluation through time, disciplinary contexts and scholarly traditions.

Summer 2017 topic:
Contemporary Arabic Literature - Writing Against Oppression  (taught in English)

This Summer course provides an introduction to contemporary Arabic literature from the Middle East. Each week, we will explore a novel in English translation that gives a humane face to the troubled histories of the region. These literary works often form a powerful voice against patriarchal, state, religious, ethnic or (neo-)colonial forms of oppression and their intersections – sometimes by restoring human dignity and a sense of agency in the context of prolonged subjugation, and sometimes in more explicitly revolutionary terms.
                The programme is structured geographically, with a weekly focus on Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Next to brief lectures, which provide contextual background in political history and Arabic literary history, the main emphasis in the seminars is on the close reading, analysis and discussion of the literary works. In addition, each week we reserve some time to look at other cultural objects, such as film, visual arts and theatre to explore adaptations, thematic cross references and broader cultural sensibilities.
                Judith Naeff is lecturer Cultures of the Middle East at Leiden University. She also teaches Literature at UCU and Visual Culture at Radboud University, Nijmegen.