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This seminar will focus on some of the crucial experiences of our time: the crossing of borders, war, migration and refugees, and living in exile. By reading and analysing a selection of autobiographical texts by women writers from different parts of the Islamic world who reflect critically on revolutions and religion, war and literature, we will encounter some of the events and conditions that continue to shape our world: the Iranian Revolution of 1979 as reflected by Azar Nafisi, professor of English Literature from Tehran; the War on Terror as experienced by May Witwit, Chaucerian scholar from Baghdad, and the Taliban regime, as confronted by Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai.
Texts:
- Students should buy copies of the following books, and read them in this order:
- Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Random House pbk)
- Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit, Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad (Penguin pbk)
- Malala Yousafzai (with Christine Lamb), I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Weidenfeld & Nicholson pbk)
- A selection of critical texts will be made available via a Moodle course once the semester has begun.
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