Short Stories International: Middle Eastern Perspectives, Part 2

In this course, we continue to explore the short-story traditions of the Middle East; specifically, modern Arab, Israeli, Palestinian, Persian, and Turkish authors. Their works dynamically reflect a wide cross section of highly diverse, highly divided Middle Eastern societies; their voices resonating through urban and rural landscapes, private and public passion, and intense, dramatic political events, often with world-wide implications. Authors included are the leading Lebanese writer Hanan Al-Shaykh and Nobel-Prize-worthy-but-passed-over Israeli writer, A.B. Yehoshua. Their themes—sometimes lyrical, often dark, sometimes comic, often heart-breaking, sometimes staid, often iconoclastic—address loss, alienation, feminism, family dysfunction, betrayal, exile, sexual awakening, and others.