This course engages with Arabic poetry in its socio-political context. How have Arab poets from the
pre-Islamic era till the present time used their verse as a tool to affirm the structure of their society, or to
struggle with it? What roles did Arabic poetry play at the Abbasid imperial courts? How does Arabic
poetry participate in the constitution and promulgation or subversion of political ideologies? And what
presence has it had in Arab peoples' struggles for independence or reform, historically and today as part
of the Arab Spring?