Universität Wien

141043 SE Arabic Popular Culture: (2020S)

Arabic Folk Literature

Continuous assessment of course work

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 12 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Friday 13.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 20.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 27.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 03.04. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 24.04. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 08.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 15.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 22.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 29.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 05.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 12.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 19.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22
  • Friday 26.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Seminarraum Assyrica UniCampus Hof 4 2D-O1-22

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Arabic popular literature is a very extensive body of texts which has had much influence on non-Arabic literatures in Europe and the Eastern Islamic world, including Muslim India. It forms a vital and indispensable part of the Arabic literary tradition and is hence of major relevance to the MA in Arabic as well as other related studies.
At the end of the course students will be familiar in general terms with the range of themes and genres to be found in medieval and contemporary Arabic popular literature and will have developed a grasp of relevant issues in literary theory and folklore studies. They will have acquired a detailed knowledge of a selected number of texts comprising both poetry and narrative prose, and will be able to comment on the performance setting and social function of the works in question. An advanced level of understanding of the distinct linguistic register of these texts will have been acquired.
Particular attention is given to the interface between popular and canonical literature, and the student will be expected to situate selected popular texts in relation to prior or subsequent canonical counterparts. Students are expected to be able to apply a range of critical theories to the literature in question and to demonstrate this in their module-work essays. Students are also introduced to key concepts of folklore studies and literary theory and given training in applying a variety of critical paradigms to their material. Course-work essays are based on supplementary texts which may be read in English translation, and are expected to take account of relevant critical literature.

Assessment and permitted materials

Attendance, participation as well as a seminar paper. Mid seminar paper can be submitted in English, German or Arabic.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Attendance 30% , seminar paper or presentation 30%, exam 40 %

Examination topics

Prophetic legends (extracts from al-Kisa’i and al-Tha’labi)
Arabian Nights (textual history and selected tales)
Medieval Arabic popular epic (extracts from Sirat Zir Salim and Sirat Sayf Ibn Dhi Yazan)
Contemporary popular epic (extracts from Sirat Bani Hilal)
Oral Bedouin poetry and sawalif of Arabia

Reading list

Beaumont, Daniel, Slave of Desire - Sex, Love and Death in the 1001 Nights, Madison (NJ), 2002.
Bettelheim, B., The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, London, 1975.
Campbell, J., The Hero with a Thousand Faces, London, 1988.
Dundes, A., The Study of Folklore, Englewood Cliffs, 1965.
George, R.A. and M.O. Jones, Folkloristics – An Introduction, Bloomington, 1995.
Ghazoul, Ferial, Nocturnal Poetics - The Arabian Nights in Perspective, Cairo, 1996.
Heath, Peter, The Thirsty Sword - Sirat Antar and the Arabic Popluar Epic, Salt Lake City, 1996.
Hovanesian, R.G. and G. Sabbagh (eds.), The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature, Cambridge, 1989.
Jayyusi, L., The Adventures of Sayf Ben Dhi Yazan: an Arabian Folk Epic, Bloomington, 1996.
Lyons, M.C., The Arabian Epic: Heoric and Oral Story-Telling (3 vols.), Cambridge, 1995.
Kurpershoek, M., Bedouin Poets of the Dawasir Tribe: Between Nomadism and Settlement in Southern Najd, Leiden, 1999.
Norris, H.T., ‘Fables and Legends in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times’, in A.F.L. Beeston et al. (eds.), Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period, Cambridge, 1983.
Norris, Harry T., Folk Epic in the Wilderness - Arabia and the Nordic World, Dublin, 1987.
Propp, Vladimir, Theory and History of Folklore, Manchester, 1984.
Ranelagh, E.L., The Past We Share: the Near Eastern Ancestry of Western Folk Literature, Quartett Books, London, 1979.
Reynolds, Dwight Fletcher, Heroic Poets, Poetic Heroes, Ithaca, 1995.
Sadan, J., ‘Harun al-Rashid and the Brewer: preliminary remarks on the Adab of the elite versus Hikayat’, in S. Ballas and R. Snir, Studies in Canonical and Popular Arabic Literature’, Toronto, 1989.
Sowayan, A., Nabati Poetry: the Oral Poetry of Arabia, Berkeley, 1985.
Schwarzbaum, H., Biblical and Extra-biblical Legends in Islamic Folk-Literature, Walldorf-Hessen, 1982.
Shoshan, B., ‘On Popular Literature in Medieval Cairo’, in Poetics Today, vol. 14:2, pp. 349-65.
Sallis, Eva, Shehrazade through the Looking Glass - The Metamorphosis of the 101 Nights, Richmond, 1999.

Association in the course directory

WM-1

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:20