Select one or two authors for this Week’s assigned readings, and comment, in your view, in which sub-discipline/area is this author(s) working? Religious Studies? History? Islamic Studies? Gender & Women’s Studies? Scriptural/Qur’anic Studies?
Specify two to three key claims the author(s) make. Give examples with page numbers. Again, be prepared to provide page #s if relevant from the source(s).
Discuss what seemed important or interesting to you about the work /sources being read as regards the Course Topic, i.e., Gender & Women. In other words, what are some of pivotal insights/conclusions arrived at by this author(s) as regards the class focus? You may also use this line of questioning to think about how these sources shape your understanding of the constructions/representations of Women & Gender Issues in our course.
Where might you critique the author? What might they have done differently? Again, be concrete, and provide page numbers if possible.
War, Gender and Sexuality: Two Lebanese Novels
E-BOOK: Lebanon Hanan al-Shaykh, The Story of Zahra
Canvas: Sabah al-Ghandour, “Hanan al-Shaykh’s Hikayat Zahra: a counter-narrative and a counter-history” from Intersections: gender, nation, and community in Arab women’s novels
Canvas: “The Fiction of Hanan al-Shaykh: Reluctant Feminist,” Charles Larson, World Literature Today 1991
Canvas: “Between Two Worlds: An Interview with Hanan al-Shaykh,” Paula Sunderman, Literary Review
Canvas: Other Secondary Sources on Hanan al-Shaykh
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Music: Lebanese Musical Icon Fayrouz (Youtube)
