31102 - Arabic Literature 1

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, the student is aware of the significant issues and specific aspects of Arabic literature's history concerning the reference time frame. Students are able to understand and translate texts in the original language. Also, they have acquired the basic theoretical knowledge to deal with the critical interpretation of literary contents, being able to comment on texts and explain them according to multiple methodologies of analysis.

Course contents

While discussing the relationship between tradition and modernity in dialogic terms, students are introduced to different literary text types and some critical approaches to literary composition and analysis (rhetoric). The course will provide students with the tools to properly contextualize the texts to reflect on the construction of the literary canon cross-temporally.

The course aims to explore how themes of Arabic literature, from ancient to pre-modern times, harmoniously echo in contemporary production. Among the topics of the course, there will be examples of pre-Islamic literature (mu'allaqat and prose) and how they have a powerful echo in contemporary desert literature (e.g., Ibrahim al-Kuni); the Koran and the theme of good and evil in intertextuality with the masterpieces of nineteenth-century literature; Arabic literature from el-Andalus and the legacy of female poets like Wallada; Sicilian-Arabic poetry and its echoes in Leonardo Sciascia's production.

A number of texts in Arabic with their translation will be provided during the class and commented on with the help of the instructor. She will help students develop a critical approach to the history of the Arab literary tradition and its sources. Mandatory languages are Italian, Arabic, and at least one between English and French, upon choice.

Readings/Bibliography

All sources are available on Virtuale. Throughout the course, students will be informed of possible changes

Bibliography:

Amaldi, Daniela. “La poesia yemenita dalla ǧāhiliyya al IX secolo

Bürgel, J. C. “The Lady Gazelle and Her Murderous Glances.” Journal of Arabic Literature, 20, 1, 1989: 1-11.

Carpentieri, Nicola, “Adab as Social Currency: the Survival of the Qaṣīda in Medieval Sicily, Mediterranea.: International Journal on the Transfer of Knowledge, 3: 1-18.

Corrao, Francesca Maria; Ruocco, Monica, Letteratura araba. Dall’epoca preislamica all’età postclassica, Firenze, Le Monnier Università, capitolo 1.

Farrin, Raymond K. . “The ‘Nūniyya’ of Ibn Zaydūn: A Structural and Thematic Analysis.” Journal of Arabic Literature, 34, 1/2, 2003: 82–106.

Ghersetti, Antonella, “Quelques notes sur la definition canonique de balagha. Philosophy and arts in the islamic world.” Philosophy and arts in the islamic world. Actes du XVIII Colloque de l'U.E.A.I. (Louvain, 3-10 septembre 1996), edited by Vermeulen and D. De Smet, Leuven, Peeters Publishers, 1998: 52-72.

Grame, Theodore. “The Symbolism of the 'Ūd.” Asian Music, 3, 1, 1972: 25-34.

Günther, Sebastian. “Muḥammad, the Illiterate Prophet: An Islamic Creed in the Qur'an and Qur'anic Exegesis.” Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 4, 1, 2002: 1-26.

Holmberg, Bo. "Adab and Arabic Literature". Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective: Volume 1: Notions of Literature Across Cultures. Volume 2: Literary Genres: An Intercultural Approach. Volume 3+4: Literary Interactions in the Modern World 1+2, edited by Anders Pettersson, Gunilla Lindberg-Wada, Margareta Petersson and Stefan Helgesson, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2006: 180-205.

Irwin, Robert. “The Arabic Beast Fable.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 55, 1992: 36–50.

al-Koni, Ibrahim, “From Anubis: A Desert Novel," translated by William M. Hutchins. Callaloo, 32, 4, Middle Eastern & North African Writers, 2009: 1089-1090.

Licitra, Ilenia, “Senses and Sensuality: Synesthetic Imagery in the Siculo-Arabic Ghazal Poems.” Kervan, 27, 2023: 225-242.

McDonald, M.V. “Animal-Books as a Genre in Arabic Literature.” Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, 15, ½, 1988: 3-10.

Mestyan, Adam. “Arabic Lexicography and European Aesthetics: The Origin of Fann.” Muqarnas, vol. 28, 2011: 69–100.

Miller, Nathaniel A. “Muslim Poets under a Christian King: An Intertextual Reevaluation of Sicilian Arabic Literature under Roger II (1112–54) (Part I).” Mediterranean Studies, 27, 2, 2019: 182–209.

Modarressi, Hossein. “Some Recent Analyses of the Concept of majāz in Islamic Jurisprudence.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 106, 4 , 1986: 787-791.

Mourtada-Sabbah, Nada; Gully, Adrian. “‘I Am, by God, Fit for High Positions’: On the Political Role of Women in al-Andalus.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 30, 2, 2003: 183–209.

Navarria, Davide. “Mircea Eliade e Julien Ries, simbolo, mito e rito: dall'ermeneutica integrale all'antropologia religiosa. Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, 108, 1, Gennaio-Marzo 2016: 157-179.

Pappalardo, Salvatore, “From Ibn Ḥamdīs to Giufà: Leonardo Sciascia and the Writing of a Siculo-Arab Literary History.” Italian Culture, 36, 1, 2018: 32-47.

Rossetti, John J. H. “Darkness in the Desert: Tradition and Transgression in Ibrāhīm al-Kūnī's ʿUshb al-Layl". Journal of Arabic Literature, 42, 2011: 49-66.

Salvatore, Armando. “Secularity through a 'Soft Distinction' in the Islamic Ecumene? Adab as a Counterpoint to Shari'a.” Historical Social Research, 44, 3, 2019: 35-51.

Stetkevych, Jaroslav. “The Hunt in Classical Arabic Poetry: From Mukhaḍram ‘Qaṣīdah’ to Umayyad ‘Ṭardiyyah.’” Journal of Arabic Literature, 30, 2, 1999: 107–27.

Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney. “Solomon and Mythic Kingship in the Arab-Islamic Tradition: Qaṣīdah, Qurʾān and Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ.” Journal of Arabic Literature, 48, 1, 2017: 1–37

Stetkevych-Pinckney, Suzanne “The Rithā' of Ta'abbata Sharran. A Study of Blood-Vengeance in Early Arabic Poetry, Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume XXXI, Issue 1, SPRING 1986: 27–45.

Webb, Peter. “Pre-Islamic al-Shām in Classical Arabic Literature: Spatial Narratives and History-Telling.” Studia Islamica, vol. 110, no. 2, 2015, pp. 135–64.

Additional References:

De Certeau, M. The Practice of Everyday Life, transl. S.F. Rendall, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984: cap. VII, 91-110.

Eco, Umberto, “Combinatoria della creatività,” Conferenza tenuta a Firenze per la Nobel Foundation il 15 Settembre 2004, 1-16.

García Lorca, Federico, Gioco e teoria del duende, Milano, Adelphi, 2012: 1-33.

Jauss, Hans Robert. “Tradition, Innovation, and Aesthetic Experience.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 46, no. 3, 1988, pp. 375–88.

Kövecses, Zoltán. Metaphor and Emotion. Language, Culture, and Body in Human Feeling. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003: cap. II, 20-34.

Moretti, Franco, “Conjectures on world literature.” New left review, 2 (1), 2000: 54-68.

Excerpts (in Arabic with translation):

al-Qur'an

Cassarino, Mirella; Ghersetti, Antonella; Osti, Letizia; Pagano, Samuela, (2024), Antologia della letteratura araba. Dalle origini al XVIII secolo, Carocci, Roma, brani scelti.

Corrao, Francesca Maria; Ruocco, Monica, Letteratura araba. Dall’epoca preislamica all’età postclassica, Firenze, Le Monnier Università, brani scelti.

Corrao, Francesca Maria, Poeti arabi di Sicilia, Milano, Mondadori, 1987, brani scelti.

Ghersetti, Antonella, (2021), La letteratura d’adab, Ipocan, Roma.

Safwat, Aḥmad Zakī, Jamharat Rasā’il al-ʽArab, 4 vol, Beirut, Maktabat al-‘ilmiyyah, 1938.

Teaching methods

Lessons will be held in person

Assessment methods

The course has three graded components: a) attendance and class participation; b) group presentations: students are responsible for leading in-course seminars focused on course topics; c) an end-course oral exam

To take the exam as a non-attending student (also from previous years), please contact the instructor.

 

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities are advised to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and the lecturer as soon as possible to explore the most effective strategies for attending lessons and/or preparing for examinations.

Teaching tools

Texts, audio-video sources, additional materials provided by the instructor.

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Fontana