ALL3867: Orientalism and the Arab World

This course explores the various manners in which "the Arab World" is constructed and re/presented in western discourses. Through scholarly writings such as Samuel Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations" thesis and popular media such as television's Homeland, this course illuminates how the idea of a monolithic "Arab World" and quintessential "Arab" subject are constructed and re/produced for western consumption. Crucially, moreover, this course also examines how this re/production of the "Arab World/Subject" is integral to the construction of western identity itself, serving as a foil to western self-conceptualization. This course also examines how individuals and peoples who are the object of the orientalist gaze have attempted to respond to and subvert orientalist discourses and stereotypes, as well as scholarly critiques of Edward Said's orientalism thesis itself.