NES 1922

FWS: In the Footsteps of Sinbad: Readings in Arabic Travel Writing

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2019-2020.

Is the Sinbad story simply a story of wondrous events aimed at entertaining the reader? Or does its symbolic language tell us something more about the nature of crossing frontiers and encountering the unknown? How do we locate and read significant moments of encountering difference in a travel narrative? On what basis do we analyze these moments? In the Footsteps of Sinbad: Readings in Arabic Travel Writing is a freshmen writing seminar where we do close reading of primary fictional and non-fictional literary texts in Arabic travel writing. The text we read are from both the medieval and the modern periods and by men and women writers. The main goal of the seminar is to develop the students' ability to understand literary texts and write about them. Readings include, but are not limited to, the English translations of: "The Story of Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights; the medieval Travels of Ibn Battuta by Ibn Battuta; My Travels Around the World by Nawal El-Saadawi; The Journey of Ibn Fattouma by Naguib Mahfouz; and Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih.

When Offered Spring.

Course Attribute (CU-ITL)
Satisfies Requirement First-Year Writing Seminar.

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