Magic, Horror and the Supernatural in the Middle East and North Africa

This 8-week course will explore works of fiction written by authors of Middle Eastern and North African origin that focus on magical realism, elements of horror and the supernatural. We will explore works written by authors from Egypt, Turkey and Iraq. Through this exploration, we will analyze fictional texts such as 'Frankenstein in Baghdad' by Ahmad Al-Saadawy, which utilizes the defragmented human body as a metaphor of war and catastrophe during the US invasion of Iraq, ‘Arabian Nights and Days’ by Naguib Mahfouz, a text that is a modern retelling of the Arabian Nights, ‘Dear Shameless Death’, which uses magical realism to tell the story of a young girl growing up in modern Turkey, and ‘The Blind Owl’ by Sadegh Hedayat, a surrealist, dreamlike narrative that is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth century Iranian Literature.

Notes

Online registration closes September 24 at 5 pm CT.

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