College of Social Sciences and International Studies

Religion and Politics in the Middle East: Literary Perspectives
Module ARA2013 for 2016/7

Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ARA2013: Religion and Politics in the Middle East: Literary Perspectives

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, an example of a syllabus is as follows:

Week 1: Introduction – politics, religion and literature

Week 2: Political Utopia

Naguib Mahfouz, The Journey of Ibn Fattouma (short novel)

Week 3: Politics and Sufism

Naguib Mahfouz, The Fountain and the Tomb (short novel)

Week 4: Religious Conflict & Sacred Violence

Abd al-Hakim Qasim, Al-Mahdi (short novel)

Week 5: Political & Religious Fundamentalism

Alaa al-Aswany, The Yacoubian Building (novel)

Week 6: Sexuality & Taboo

Alaa al-Aswany, The Yacoubian Building (novel)

Week 7: Gender & Patriarchy I

Nawal Saadawi, God Dies by the Nile and/or Salwa Bakr, The Shrine of Atia (short novels)

Week 8: Gender & Patriarchy II

Alifa Rifaat, Distant View from a Minaret (short story collection)

Week 9: Postcolonial Perspectives

Tayyeb Saleh, ‘The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid’ (short story)

Week 10: Religion, Myth & Nation

Poems by Adonis and Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

Week 11: Concluding remarks

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching activities	22	11x2 hour classes. You will need to complete all readings prior to class and be ready to participate. On some occasions you may be asked to participate.
Guided independent study	68	Reading and research
Guided independent study	30	Completing assignments
Guided independent study	30	Preparing for assessments

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).