Palestine in Literature and Film

Catalog description

Palestine has been on everyone's lips for the last two and a half years - and the idea that people "don't understand" or "should know" about Palestine is part of our political and cultural debates in North America. But what have Palestinians been saying in words, music, and film - and what backgrounds do we need to engage them? This course offers an opportunity to read Palestinian literary culture and engage Palestinian music and politics across time. We start with the rap album Shabjdeed released in the West Bank in February 2024 and work through a canon of literary and artistic expression, developing a conversation about Palestinian culture, politics, internationalization, and history that will help us to think about the current moment. Key figures for the course will include Mahmoud Darwish, Emile Habibi, Sayed Kashua, Samira Azzam, Ghassan Kanafani, Anton Shammas, and Adania Shibli.