Waqas Khwaja
Buttrick 226, Ext. 5056
Office hours: W 3:00-5:00 PM
or by appointment
Spring 2006
TTh 9:30-10:45 PM
Buttrick 209
FYS 190 E
Narratives of the Afghan People
Legends abound about their origin. Are they, as some claim, the lost tribes of Israel? Or are they
the descendants of the Greek soldiers who followed Alexander to the ends of the earth in his
quest for world domination and glory? Are they merely brigands or wild tribesmen sprung from a
merciless landscape? In this course we shall study a variety of texts about the Afghans, their
country, and their way of life: historical accounts and legends, travel narratives by men and
women, novels and poems, films and documentaries, political assessments and accounts of
military campaigns, homegrown stories and foreign tales, and sift through them to find the truth
about Afghanistan and the Afghans. We shall read about the rise of the Taliban and their fall, the
stories about secret literary societies of women, the heroism and brutality, not to forget
brutalization, of ordinary folk, the common everyday and the remarkably fantastical, and judge
for ourselves, if indeed we can do that, what bewildering extremes of behavior human being are
capable of. What kind of a people are these Afghans? What are the bonds that tie us to them?
Shall we hate them or love them?
Course Schedule
Jan. 19 Introduction; hand out course syllabus; explanation of course requirements
Jan. 24 Afghanistan, Chapters 1-6
26 Afghanistan, Chapters 7-11
Jan. 31 Afghanistan, Chapters 12-17
Feb.02 Afghanistan, Chapters 18-22
07 Osama, screening schedule, tba; first one-page analytical response paper
09 Kandahar, screening schedule, tba
14 Taliban, Part I: History of the Taliban Movement
16 Taliban, Part II: Islam and the Taliban
21 Taliban, Part III: The New Great Game
23 Taliban, discussion cont.; second one-page analytical response paper
28 Beneath the Veil, screening schedule, tba; First 5-page analytical paper (on any one of
the texts studied in class between Jan. 24 and Feb. 23)
Mar.02 The Storyteller’s Daughter
07 The Storyteller’s Daughter, discussion cont.
09 Self-regulated class; third one-page analytical response paper
Spring Break, March 13-17
21 The Sewing Circles of Herat
23 The Sewing Circles of Herat
28 The Kite Runner; fourth one page analytical response paper
30 The Kite Runner
Apr. 04 The Swallows of Kabul; Second 5-page analytical research paper (on any one of the
texts studied in class between Jan. 28 and March 30)
06 The Swallows of Kabul
11 The Bookseller of Kabul
13 The Bookseller of Kabul; fifth one-page analytical response paper
Easter, April 14-16
18 West of Kabul, East of New York
20 West of Kabul, East of New York;
25 Baran, screening schedule, tba
27 Presentations: Completed drafts of 6-8 page final analytical research paper
May 02 Summing up; Final 6-8 page research paper due
Texts
Required:
Shah, Saira. The Storyteller’s Daughter. Alfred A. Knopf. 2003.
Khadra, Yasmina. The Swallows of Kabul. Nan A. Talese, Doubleday. 2004.
Seierstad, Åsne. The Bookseller of Kabul. Little, Brown and Company. 2003.
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books. 2003.
Lamb, Christina. The Sewing Circles of Heart. HarperCollins. 2002.
Ansary, Tamim. West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux. 2002.
Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban. Yale U Press. 2001.
Ewans, Martin. Afghanistan: A Short History of its People and Politics. HarperCollins. 2001.
Films:
Osama.
Kandahar.
Baran.
Beneath the Veil
Recommended:
Caroe, Olaf. A History of the Pathans. Oxford U Press.
The right to make modifications to this syllabus is reserved.
Analytical response papers: Five one-page, single-spaced, typed, thesis-driven, response papers on
five different assigned texts for the course at least four of which are other than those that form the
subject of your longer papers. You have the option of using only one of your response papers to
expand and enlarge into a longer paper. You are encouraged to try out various modes of
persuasive writing including comparison and contrast, exposition and explication, cause and effect,
argument and analysis, and critical reasoning.
Individual Oral Presentations: Each course participant is expected to offer one
individual oral presentation on a text and topic of her choice during the course of the
semester. Students need to choose by January 26 the text they wish to present on from the
works listed on the syllabus. Dates for the presentations shall be allocated on the basis of
mutual accommodation, ensuring that no duplication of topics or dates takes place, but
the earlier requests will be given priority over the later in case of conflict. The
presentations will need to be linked to and focused on the text assigned for the day. They
should offer a research-based textual analysis and explication of the selected text and
topic, be at least 10, and no more than 15, minutes long, express a distinct personal
interpretation without ignoring issues of debate and disagreement picked up during
background and scholarly research, and be creatively conceived and executed. Presenters
should also generate a set of questions for the class that needs to be distributed among the
students as a formal handout. An account of the research done and the way it
influenced or modified the student’s view of the subject should be turned in to your
professor at the end of the presentation. This account should include, (i) identification
of the text on which the presentation will focus, (ii) a one-paragraph description of your
chosen topic followed by a second on your initial ideas or assumptions about it, (iii) a
record of the research conducted, including a list of sources consulted, and (iv) a twoparagraph concluding section on what you learned from the research, how it influenced or
changed your perception of the subject, and how it helped you to arrive at a more
informed understanding of your chosen text/topic. In all, this should not be less than 2
and more than 3 pages long.
Grading: Grades will be calculated in the following manner: (i) Class participation, 10%; (2)
Individual Oral Presentation, including the research account, 15%; (3) Five, one-page, response
papers, 30%; (4) Two 5-page papers, 30%; (5) Presentation of completed draft of final paper, 5%; (6)
Final research paper, 25%.
General Instructions:
The Department of English requires that all assignments must be completed for a student to
receive credit for the course. The college policy of penalization by 1/3 letter grade for each day an
assignment or paper is late shall be followed. Punctuality, attendance, and coming prepared to class
are crucial to this course. Six missed classes without compelling cause or prior permission shall
result in "F" for the course. Each absence without cause or excuse will affect the grade
negatively in proportion.
Assignments: All work turned in should be typed or printed on a computer letter-quality printer. It
should be double-spaced and properly proof read for typographical and spelling errors before it is
submitted for evaluation. Last minute corrections of minor spelling or punctuation errors may be
made by hand. Be sure to follow the conventions of the MLA style-sheet as described in your
Handbook (St. Martin’s). Students must obtain approval of the professor for the topics
of their presentations and research papers.
Class Participation: Students are not only expected to attend their classes regularly but also to
generate and/or actively participate in class discussions. Their comments should show that they
have read the assigned material critically and have reflected upon it sufficiently to warrant the
positions they take and the opinions or comments they offer.
Student Conferences: Students are encouraged to set up individual conferences with their professor
for discussing their work and planning their assignments. It is strongly recommended that each
course participant meet at least twice with the professor during the course of the semester.
KEY IDEAS FOR ANALYTICAL PAPERS: Read primary material critically. Identify key
ideas, foundational concepts, overt statements and latent suggestions that combine to form the
denotative and connotative field of the text. Remember, you are not paraphrasing, so avoid
stating the obvious or offering only the surface meaning. What lies behind the words, the
underlying implications, the deeper design or intent is what you might want to access and
explore. So ask questions as you go along: why particular narrative choices are made, how they
affect or attempt to affect our attitudes, how they seek to manipulate our responses, control and
determine the way we read, what kind of tone is being used, is the approach reasonable, logically
sound, or is there overt or hidden bias, if so, what kind or kinds are at work, is the historical
context accurately presented, or is it fudged, if the latter, to what extent and for toward what end,
and so.
Once you have a sound and critical sense of the text under review, choose a topic
that interests you. Make sure it suits the length of the paper you are assigned. Be sure you have a
definite idea, a thesis or argument that you want to present in your paper. Formulate it clearly.
Remember that a thesis is not an obvious statement of fact. It is one that needs to be logically
validated and demonstrated with examples from the text. So get together and organize the
material that supports and illustrates your thesis. Develop the thesis to lead your reader to a
greater understanding of the subject or to provide a valuable insight into it.
Always prepare a rough draft. Edit, revise, and, if necessary, reorganize your material
to give your final draft a beginning, middle, and end, each part leading to and evolving into the
next. Make sure your conclusions are strong, perhaps opening up new possibilities, but do
not restate or repeat your thesis at the end when you have already stated it in an earlier
part of your paper.
Research Papers: In addition to the suggestions above, use library and computer resources to
find additional background and scholarly information, authoritative articles, books,
documentaries, etc., on your subject. Use a variety of sources, and do not rely for more than 30%
of your secondary material from internet and digital sites. Incorporate in your paper only the
relevant portion of the information gathered. Enter into a dialogue with the critics and scholars
you cite. Never quote passively, i.e., only for the sake of quoting or ornamentation. Integrate the
quoted material into the structure of your argument and exposition.
These are guidelines and suggestions. Use them intelligently and imaginatively.