Module ARA2001 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
ARA2001: From Holy Text to Sex Manuals in the Medieval Middle East
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
The module aims not only to give you an idea of the most important themes and authors within a highly influential literary tradition (sc. Classical Arabic literature) and its historical contexts, but also an awareness of issues that are essential to an understanding of all world literature, namely translation theory and practices, the construction of the author’s identity, the manner in which texts signal their truth value (i.e. do they present themselves as fact or fiction), and the effects of cross-genre and cross-cultural influences on literary traditions broadly speaking. These skills are essential to a scholar of history or literature dealing with primary texts in a comparative fashion.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate specialist knowledge of crucial themes in Classical Arabic literature and Medieval Middle Eastern history, and their relationship to similar themes and trends in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. 2. Demonstrate critical understanding of the intersection between religion, literature, and historiography in the Near and Middle East. 3. Demonstrate an awareness of translation practices in Arabic literature and beyond. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Critically analyse primary sources. 5. Demonstrate knowledge and application of some central ideas in both literary theory and in historiography. 6. Demonstrate specialist knowledge of critical debates surrounding world literature in general and as applied specifically to the Arabic literary tradition. 7. Collate data from a range of sources, both primary and secondary. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 8. Apply theory to texts and contexts. 9. Demonstrate critical and analytical skills. 10. Rank sources and structure arguments. 11. Identify a topic; select, comprehend, and organise primary and secondary materials on that topic with little guidance. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics
Translation and the word of God
Bringing the problems of translation into focus with the example of the Qur’an, while also learning about the importance of the Qur’an to literature and culture.
Qur’an, hadith, akhbar-- the hidden author
Considering theories of authorship in light of works that are orally transmitted or whose authorship is otherwise complicated.
Story and History
Considering how texts signal themselves as being fiction or non-fiction while studying the development of historiography in the Middle East as well as in Europe.
Poetry with a purpose?
Considering the importance of Arabic poetry and its pre-Islamic history, as well as the purported magical origins of satire.
Donkeys
Comparing stories from different cultures in which humans have carnal relations with donkeys. Why does this trope recur? What is it used to teach? What is meant by “carnivalesque” and how can we apply that concept here?
Poetry and Piety, a question of reception?
Considering poets who adopt a blasphemous wine-drinking persona while simultaneously professing their piety.
Traveling
Wandering tricksters, rogues, and scholars—their literary and historical importance.
Mysticism around the world
Mysticism and its shared features in many different cultures, with an emphasis on Sufism.
Influence
The Influence of Arabic literature on European literary classics like Dante’s Divine Comedy. The influence of Arabic medicine and science on European medicine and science.
The Centrality of the Marginal
Why are themes of sex, wine-drinking, and foul-mouthed blasphemous humour treated by some modern scholars as marginal when they are in fact so prevasive and central to medieval literature and culture?
Modern traces and Interpretations
What can be seen of the Medieval Middle East in the modern “Western World,” looking everwhere from rides in Disney land to modern medicine.
Learning and Teaching
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 | 11 x 2 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 |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
