hi everyone,
Please note your reading assignment for next week below. Make sure you do a close reading of the articles, the content of which will be on your midterm.
Also, please do check the news blogs and resources on our Resource page here. I cannot stree enough how important it is to consult these resources at least once a week and to read at least 2 short stories. You will be missing out on tumultous times otherwise.
have a nice weekend, and don't do anything i wouldn't do.
b
(c3) Classic Orientalism and Other "Essentialisms:" The Study of the “East”
A. Orientalism; B. Theologocentrism; C. Cultural Exceptionalism; D. Middle East Exceptionalism; E. Arab/Muslim Apologists
Readings:
- Walid Khalidi, Arabs and the West, The Forum, XXXII, December 1957. [CW]
- Zachary Lockman, “Orientalism and empire” in Contending Visions of the Middle East, the History and Politics of Orientalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 66-98. [CW]
- Interview with Bassam Haddad (November 2003), on Culture, Islamic Values, and Democracy in the Arab World. [CW]
Questions & Issues to Consider: How has the Middle East (or the “East”) been studied historically? What influenced the study of the Middle East from a European perspective? Or, later, from an American perspective? How do power relations affect the production of knowledge, or notions of “objectivity?” What are the most salient categories in pop culture for understanding the Middle East? Where do they come from and how are they perpetuated? Can we produce objective knowledge about the “other?”
A suburb of southern Beirut after Israeli bombardment in July 2006. 1 mile from my house!
