Undervisningsplan ARA4304 (Stephan Guth) – Vår 2008
Contemporary Arabic Literature – Texts and Contexts
(priliminary version, 06Jan2008)
Session
Date
Text & Theme/topic

no.
points to no. of reference as given in the Pensum reading list
(1)
17 Jan
Introduction
(2)
24 Jan
 Text: ‘Alā’ al-Aswānī, ʿImārat Yaʿqūbiyān, ch. 4
 Literature & history (Literature read as history, History in
Presented
by
Stephan
Everybody
Stephan
Literature, etc.) ( ref. 1)
(3)
31 Jan
(1) Text: ‘Alā’ al-Aswānī, ʿImārat Yaʿqūbiyān (cont.), ch. …
(2) 20th century Egyptian history; Cairo downtown ( ref. 4&5)
(4)
07 Feb
 Text: ‘Alā’ al-Aswānī, ʿImārat Yaʿqūbiyān (cont.), ch. …
 History of MAL, Postmodernism (short overview) ( ref. 2&3)
(5)
14 Feb
 Text: Ḥanān al-Shaykh, Innahā Lundun yā ʿazīzī, ch. …
Everybody
Stephan
Everybody
Stephan
Everybody
 Diaspora Literature ( ref. 8:)
(6)
21 Feb
 Text: Ḥanān al-Shaykh, Innahā Lundun yā ʿazīzī (cont.), ch. …
Everybody
 Background reading:  ref. 9-11
 N.N.’s presentation (?) ( ref. xxx)
(7)
28 Feb
 Text: Ḥanān al-Shaykh, Innahā Lundun yā ʿazīzī (cont.), ch. …
N.N.
Everybody
 Background reading (cont.):  ref. 9-11
 N.N.’s presentation (?)( ref. xxx)
(8)
06 Mar
no lesson (Fagkritisk dag)
13 Mar
 Text: Rajāʾ ʿAbdallāh al-Ṣāniʿ, Banāt al-Riyāḍ, ch. …
N.N.
Everybody
 Contemporary Saudi Arabia: history and society ( ref. 12)
 N.N.’s presentation (?)( ref. xxx)
(9)
20 Mar
no lesson (Skjærtorsdag)
27 Mar
no lesson (Åpen dag)
03 Apr
 Text: Rajāʾ ʿAbdallāh al-Ṣāniʿ, Banāt al-Riyāḍ (cont.), ch. …
N.N.
Everybody
 Contemporary Saudi Arabia: history and society (cont.) / Voices
from the Internet ( ref. 13-16)
 N.N.’s presentation (?) ( ref. xxx)
(10)
10 Apr
 Text: Rajāʾ ʿAbdallāh al-Ṣāniʿ, Banāt al-Riyāḍ (cont.), ch. …
N.N.
Everybody
 Voices from the Internet (cont.) / JAL review etc. ( ref. 13-16)
 N.N.’s presentation (?)
(11)
17 Apr
Individual tutoring for semesteroppgave
(12)
24 Apr
Individual tutoring for semesteroppgave
15 May
Deadline semesteroppgave
N.N.
Everybody
Undervisningsplan ARA4304 (Stephan Guth), Vår 2008 –
p. 2
Basic Texts
 ‘Alā’ al-Aswānī, ʿImārat Yaʿqūbiyān. Cairo: Dār Mīrīt, 2002 [and later editions]
The Yacoubian Building / Alaa Al Aswany ; translated by Humphrey Davies. New York : HarperCollins, 2006.
Yacoubian-bygningen / Alaa Al Aswany ; oversatt fra arabisk av Linda Kjosaas. [Oslo] : Gyldendal, 2007.
 Ḥanān al-Shaykh, Innahā Lundun yā ʿazīzī. Beirut: Dār al-Ādāb, 2001. [and later editions]
Only in London / Hanan al-Shaykh ; translated by Catherine Cobham. London: Bloomsbury, 2002.
Bare i London / Hanan Al-Shaykh ; oversatt fra engelsk av Bente Klinge. [Oslo] : Gyldendal, 2002; Gyldendal pocket 2003.
 Rajāʾ ʿAbdallāh al-Ṣāniʿ, Banāt al-Riyāḍ. Beirut & London: Saqi, 2005 [and later editions]
Girls of Riyadh / Rajaa Alsanea ; translated by Rajaa Alsanea and Marilyn Booth. New York : Penguin Press, 2007.
 Reference literature

Undervisningsplan says which texts should be prepared for which session.

Additional readings will be specified after the first session (according to students’ choice of thematical
focus in the novel readings)
General
(1)
Texts on the relation between Literature & History (Literature read as history, History in Literature, etc.):
[excerpts, still to be specified]

Tosh, John (32002): The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of
Modern History, Longman, London.

Fairburn, Miles (1999): Social History: Problems, Strategies and Methods. Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Demos, John (1998): “In search of reasons for historians to read novels”. American Historical Review,
103,5, pp. 1526-9. [availabe online]
(2)
History of Modern Arabic Literature – general (overviews/introductions)

Allen, Roger (forthcoming): “Introduction” [to a selection of literary-biographical studies on modern
Arab authors]. 23 pp. [Fronter]

Hamarneh, W. (1998): “fiction, modern”. In: Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. J. Scott Meisami &
P. Starkey, London/New York, vol. i, 230-233.

Ostle, Robin (ed., 1991): Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East, 1850-1970. Routledge,
London. [esp. chs. 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 13 = on Arabic literature and its contexts]

(3)
Starkey, Paul (2006): Modern Arabic Literature. Edinburgh UP (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys).
History of MAL – Postmodernism

Klages, Mary: “Postmodernism” (internet)

Guth, Stephan (forthcoming): “Individuality lost, fun gained”. About to appear in JAIS, vol. 7 (2007)
[Fronter]

Abdel-Malek, Kamal & Hallaq, Wael (eds., 2000): Tradition, modernity, and postmodernity in Arabic
literature: essays in honor of professor Issa J. Boullata. Brill, Leiden & Boston [selected chs.]

Neuwirth, Angelika / Pflitsch, Andreas [et al.] (eds., 2008?): English translation of Arabische Literatur,
postmodern (München: edition text & kritik, 2004). [later this year availabe via Fronter]
ʿImārat Yaʿqūbiyān
(4)
For a basic outline of the history of Egypt in the 20th century cf. the Wiki entries on “History of modern
Egypt”, “Nasser”, “Mubārak”. For special reference on the Mubarak era:
Al-Awadi, Hesham (2004): In pursuit of legitimacy : the Muslim Brothers and Mubarak, 1982-2000. Tauris,
London (Library of modern Middle East studies; 46) [UHS, 320.962 Al-A]
Undervisningsplan ARA4304 (Stephan Guth), Vår 2008 –
(5)
p. 3
History of Cairo downtown

Abu-Lughod, Janet L. (1971): Cairo : 1001 years of the city victorious. Princeton UP, Princeton
(Princeton studies on the Near East), esp. pp. ...-... [UHS, 962.16 Abu]

Gugler, Josef (ed., 2004): World cities beyond the West : globalization, development, and inequality.
Cambridge University Press, ch. on Cairo
(6)
Hafez, Sabry (2007): “En hvit elefant”. Klassenkampen, Lø 11./Sø 12. nov. 2007, p. 42 (Bokmagasinet).
[copies of the article will be distributed in class]
(7)
Numerous reviews on the Internet.
Innahā Lundun yā ʿazīzī
(8)
Diaspora Literature and the problematics of Belonging, identity, integration, etc. in Arabic literature (in
general):

Salhi, Zahia Smail & Netton, Ian Richard (eds., 2006): “Introduction”. In: The Arab diaspora : voices of
an anguished scream, Routledge, London (Routledge advances in Middle East and Islamic studies),
pp. ...-...
(9)
Schlote, Christiane (2003): “From Bleak House to Leighton House: Reading Ḥanān al-Shaykh’s Only in
London as New Urban Fiction”. In: Christoph Bode, Sebastian Domsche and Hans Sauer (eds.),
Anglistentag 2003 München: Proceedings, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, München, 235-47. – Cf. also
her Exposé for the conference on Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of
London.
(10)
Boustani, Sobhi (forthcoming): “Terre d’exil, espace d’une identité en crise. Essai sur le roman Innahā
London yā ‘azīzī (Londres mon amour) de Ḥanān al-Shaykh”. In: Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asiatiques
(2008) [available in Fronter]
(11)
El-Enany, Rasheed (2006): “Representations of the Other in the Work of Ḥanān al-Shaykh”. In: id., Arab
Representations of the Occident: East-West Encounters in Arabic Fiction, Routledge, London, ...-....
Banāt al-Riyāḍ
(12)
Wikipedia articles “Saudi_Arabia”, “History of S.A.”, “Geography of S.A.”, “Politics of S.A.”, “Human rights
in S.A.”, “Provinces of S.A.”, “Demographics of S.A.”,
“Committee_for_the_Propagation_of_Virtue_and_the_Prevention_of_Vice”
(13)
Some voices from the press/internet, e.g.:

Svetlova, Ksenia: “Those wild Wahhabi women-spicy new novel Riyad Girls, Saudi Arabia's version of Sex and
the City”. Jerusalem Post 2-4-06, http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/1571949/posts

Al-Zayer, Samar: “The Girls of Riyadh’ should be ‘The Girls of Saudi Arabia’”. Mar 25, 2006.
http://www.aliya.ae/php/readWomennews.php?news_id=24

El-Hennawy, Noha: “Rajaa Al-Sanea’s daring new novel lifts the veil off Saudi society, exposing another side of
the Muslim world’s most conservative society.” Apr 01, 2006,
http://www.aliya.ae/php/readWomennews.php?news_id=25, or in: EgyptToday,Aug. ’06, Volume #27, Issue 08,
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6447

Asharq Al-Awsat Interviews, Apr 08, 2006, http://www.aliya.ae/php/readWomennews.php?news_id=27.
(14)
Review of the novel by Moneera al-Ghadeer in JAL 37,2 (2006), 296-302 [available online via UBOsfx]
(15)
Impact of the Internet on Arab societies:

Hofheinz, Albrecht (2007): "Arab Internet use: popular trends and public impact". In: Arab Media and Political
Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life, ed. Naomi Sakr, I.B. Tauris, London (Library of Modern Middle
Eastern Studies; 68), pp. 56-78 & 178-184.

Hofheinz, Albrecht (2005): "The Internet in the Arab world: Playground for political liberalisation". Internationale
Politik und Gesellschaft / International Politics and Society, 3/2005, pp. 78-96. Availabe online.
Undervisningsplan ARA4304 (Stephan Guth), Vår 2008 –
(16)
p. 4
Author’s homepage: http://www.rajaa.net/v2/index.htm
Further background reading / for reference:
History of Saudi Arabia
Metz, Helen Chapin [et al.] (1993): Saudi Arabia : a country study. Federal Research Division - Library of
Congress, Washington.
Long, David Edwin (1997): The kingdom of Saudi Arabia. UP of Florida, Gainesville (Fla.)[etc.].
Niblock, Tim (2006): Saudi Arabia : power, legitimacy and survival. Routledge, London.
Peterson, John (2003): Historical dictionary of Saudi Arabia. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md. [1st ed. 1993].
Vassiliev, Alexei [Vasil'ev, Aleksej Michajlovic] (1998): The history of Saudi Arabia. Saqi Books, London.
Saudi Arabian society (in general)
Gray, Seymour (1983): Beyond the veil : the adventures of an American doctor in Saudi Arabia. Harper & Row,
New York.
Hazimi, Mansour I. al- [et al.] (ed., 2006): Beyond the dunes : an anthology of modern Saudi literature / English
edition ed. by Salma Khadra Jayyusi. I.B. Tauris, London.
Long, David Edwin (2005): Culture and customs of Saudi Arabia. Greenwood Press, Westport/Conn.
Women in Saudi Arabia
AlMunajjed, Mona (1997): Women in Saudi Arabia today. Macmillan Press, Basingstoke [etc.]; St. Martin's Press,
New York.
Bagader, Abubaker [et al.] (ed. & transl., 1998): Voices of change : short stories by Saudi Arabian women writers .
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder (Colo.)[etc.].
In German:
Prokop, Michaela (2005): Saudi-Arabien. Kreuzlingen: Hugendubel.
Steinberg, Guido (2002): Religion und Staat in Saudi-Arabien : die wahhabitischen Gelehrten 1902-1953.
Würzburg : Ergon-Verl.
Steinberg, Guido (2004): Saudi-Arabien : Politik, Geschichte, Religion. München: C.H. Beck.
Vagt, Holger (1992): Die Frau in Saudi-Arabien zwischen Tradition und Moderne. Berlin: Kl. Schwarz (Islamkundl.
Untersuchungen; 163).