NELC2066 · Slavic & Eastern Languages and Literatures

Readings in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

With the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the antagonisms riving and riveting Arab and Jew, this course seeks to discuss edifying books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, analyzing their themes, probing their authors voices, examining temperaments, opinions, political engagements, and attitudes of self and other, and each of the actors/authors' narratives. The course will embark with a critical historical analysis of what is colloquially known as the Arab-Israeli conflict, bringing special attention to splintering empires Post-WWI (both in the Middle East and Europe,) delving into the complex unresolved legacies of multiple identities and the political and cultural conflicts that accompanied the emergence of a new Middle Eastern state system. The course will then proceed to the analysis of various narrative voices of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, interrogating key concepts such as identity, memory, state, homeland, nationalism, localism, diaspora, Zionism, Arabism, refugees, and citizenship from different Arab and Israeli purviews four Arab and four Israeli voices in total, all eight of which by definition advancing heated, temperamental, personal, seldom unbiased voices. The course will conclude with students selecting one additional book, as part of their Final Paper topic and class presentation, which they will read independently summarizing their books narrative and its authors voice and positionality (that is to say, how the authors identity and world of references inform his/her biases, beliefs, and attitudes relative to the Arab-Israeli conflict.)