MIZRAHI HEBREW LITERATURE (PR-3200)
(01/31/2022-05/20/2022)
Course Memo
This course will focus on literary narratives, poetry, and other forms of cultural production of Arab-Jewish or Mizrahi authors and the political themes suggested by their writing. We will explore how the work of these ground-breaking writers portrays the marginalization of Jews who came (or were brought) to Israel/Palestine from Muslim lands. The readings will situate this dynamic in a comparative, transnational context, in terms of both how it relates to other marginalized groups in Israel/Palestine and to American categories of race. In addition, by examining how the seemingly contradictory figure of the “Arab-Jew” suggests a critique of the Eurocentric bias of Zionism, we will consider alternatives to Zionism’s differentiation between Arab and Jew. We will further illuminate how these authors draw upon themes of Jewish mysticism and how their work suggests a Jewish identity that conforms to patterns of Islamic rather than European Christian secularization. Readings will be in English translation.