COML 3708

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - April 13, 2023 2:00PM EDT
  • Course Catalog - April 12, 2023 7:14PM EDT

COML 3708
Race and Sex: Arabian Nights

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2022-2023.

Popular consciousness of The Thousand and One Nights tends to focus on the female protagonist's inexhaustible oratory talents. Less frequently marveled at is the way in which the text's frame story and its one unchanging feature begins with an interdiction on "interracial" sex. What does the representation of this initial sexual encounter in the Arabian Nights have to do with global discourses on race, gender and sexuality? This course explores the millenia-long history of mediations and translations of this ancient Perso-Arabic compilation of myth and fable across literature, film, and popular culture, in Southwest Asia (the Middle East), the U.S. and in Europe. We will pay attention to the historical transmission of tropes about sexuality and blackness as they manifest in various versions of the Arabian Nights. We will situate our discussions within debates in film and media theory, feminist and queer theory, black studies, and psychoanalysis. Students will develop familiarity with various forms of cultural inquiry and theory.

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (GHB)
Distribution Category (ALC-AS, LA-AS, SCD-AS)
Course Attribute (CU-ITL)

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Syllabi:

  • 16808 COML 3708   SEM 101

  •  
    • W Uris Hall 302
    • Aug 22 - Dec 5, 2022

    • Vaziri, P

  • Instruction Mode: In Person
    What does the representation of sexual encounter in the Arabian Nights ('Alf layla-wa layla) have to do with a politics of race and gender? This course explores the millenia-long history of mediations and translations of this ancient Perso-Arabic text across literature, film, and popular culture, in the Middle East and in Europe. We will pay attention to the transmission of phobic tropes about female sexuality and miscegenation, or "interracial" sex as they manifest in various versions of 1001 Nights across time and space.