Group+Presentation+-+Middle+East+Literature

Heather Wildrick Cindy Steiner Victoria Lawton

Teaching Literature of and about the Middle East

1. Cultural Considerations • The Middle East is variously defined. Some definitions include North Africa, parts of the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey in addition to the traditional countries from Egypt to Iraq. • The region contains a diverse mix of religions, ethnicities, politics, languages, and traditions. • The region is the birthplace of 3 major religions which are all practiced in the region. • 3 major groups of languages: Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic), Indo-European (Kurdish, Persian, Armenian), Turkic (Turkish, Azeri) • Different languages have influenced each other • Strong importance of family, nuclear and extended, honor, loyalty, respect. • Strong connection between past and present • Tension between urban and rural cultures • Western involvement in region is suspect by some who believe Islam should be guiding force • Entrenched class, religious, ethnic conflicts combined with economic inequities and excesses which fuel personal, national and international conflicts • Young people are exposed to and intrigued by Western ideas of wealth, education, and living which are all mostly unattainable for them • Quest for identity and dignity

2. Reasons for Teaching Middle Eastern Literature

• Children need to be educated about this region to counter stereotypes and prejudice after 9/11 and to learn about a people whose immigration to the US is increasing • Texts from and about the Middle East o Build awareness and knowledge of others’ cultures and the texts’ impact on the cultures’ members o Foster an awareness of how each student’s own cultural identity impacts his or her attitudes, beliefs and behavior o Build self-identity and the ability to accept others individually and across cultural borders o Offer students opportunities to recognize human connections and participate in dialogue about human controversies • Including multicultural literature o Supports effective literacy instruction and in turn, critical thinking o Increases students’ willingness to read and their tolerance of differences in race, religion, ethnicity and gender o Enhances general reading performance • Students enjoy literature o Involving young people with whom they can identify o That addresses their questions or provokes questions about previously unexamined issues o That involves protagonists who challenge authority and norms • Students enjoy o Books about justice o Suspense o Graphic Novels o Studying and imitating ancient proverbs • Ancient texts from Middle East show how Western and Middle Eastern authors have borrowed from earlier texts and traditions and how poets have treated themes and circumstances across different times and places

3. Themes to study with Middle Eastern literature • Traditions • Family/friendship • Pride/prejudice • Freedom/oppression • Individual/society • Youth/aging • Destiny/free will • Roles/selfhood • Politics/nationalism/religion • War/peace/violence • Justice/injustice • Wealth/poverty • Initiation/innocence • Forgiveness/revenge • Humanity/inhumanity • Courage/cowardice • Illusion/reality • Past/present (I’m adding this one because it is a major theme of The Kite Runner)

4. Genres • Epics • Religious texts – understand roots of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity • Biography – Muhammad, Saladin • Poetry o Ghazal o Qasida o Masnavi o Roba’i o Qitah o Divan o Folk • Maqamat – collections of rhymed prose • Tales • Folklore • Rihla – travel books • Proverbs and daily expressions • Short story, drama, novel

5. Gender and Ethnic Identity - study women’s issues and literature written by Middle Easterners

6. Intertextual Comparisons and Contrasts – connect ME texts with traditional or YA texts

7. Language Use in Political and Social Contexts – dangers of free expression in the ME, use of language to control

8. Selecting Appropriate Literature – quality texts • http://www.mesa.arizona.edu - Middle East Studies Association • http://mec.sas.upenn.edu/resources/teachinglibrary.html - Middle East Center • http://menic.utexas.edu/cmes/pub/melt.html - Modern ME Lit in Translation Series • http://meoc.us/ - ME Outreach Council and ME Book Award • http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/home.htm - ME & Islamic Studies Collection • http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/hebrew_lit.html - ME & Islamic Study • http://www.ithl.org.il/authors.html - Institute for Translation of Hebrew Literature • http://www.banipal.co.uk/home/index.php - Banipal: Magazine of Modern Arab Literature

9. Addressing Administration and Parental Concerns • Read works carefully and research how they have been received • Keep administrators aware of text you want to teach • Create a written rationale for teaching the text • Invite parents to ask questions • Have an alternative assignment available

10. Guiding Principles and Methods • Teachers need to model openness in attitudes, orientations, and responses. • Literary discussions should feature diverse voices and issues of culture, race, class, and gender and dispel cultural myths and stereotypes • Give students opportunities to view issues from the perspectives of different individuals and groups • Encourage exploration and dialogue when students are inclined to overlook and avoid opportunities to question and discuss texts, their constructions, and their cultural impact • Show how past and present are connected • Provide accurate background information and stress its importance • Classroom should include posters, maps, etc that suggest different views of what it means to be a global citizen or role model and what places and objects are significant across cultures • Show how individual interacts within his/her culture • Build bridges and connections between literary protagonists and teen readers own lives. • Can begin by discussing materials on hand or noting omissions in class anthology • Then introduce conversations about different civilizations, colonization, and inherent contradictions in Christianity, ethics, national identities and slavery • Teachers should encourage students to examine their assumptions and shed religious, class, ethnic, and other prejudices • Teacher should encourage students to move toward the discovery of and respect for the unique humanity of others and later focus on self-discovery in relation to others • Use cultural studies approach • Use excerpts from very long works or use lit circles, jigsaw, etc • Bring in speakers from students’ families or the community to speak about the Middle East

11. Habibi Book Review

Habibi is a poignant novel that explores cultural perspectives from a teenager’s point of view. Liyana, a freshman-aged Arab-American teenager, has just received her first kiss and comes home to the news that her Arab father is moving their family to the Palestinian section of Israel so that they can become reacquainted with the rest of their family (who are Palestinian). Liyana demonstrates the expected teenage reluctance at the idea of leaving her friends and all that is familiar behind, but she has no choice. Within a month, the family is in a hotel near Ramallah and Jerusalem, surrounded by scores of family members whom Liyana has never met and who only speak Arabic.

Liyana’s family finds a home outside of Jerusalem, very near a Palestinian refugee camp. While she struggles with feeling like a stranger in a strange land, Liyana is soon immersed and embraced in the culture of Palestine and begins to understand the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, although in a rather one-sided way. One day, she meets a boy named Omer, who she only later learns is Jewish, and with whom, of course, she very quickly falls in love. Her family, having suffered discrimination at the hands of Jewish authorities, is very wary of allowing Liyana to have anything to do with Omer, but she persists in trying to bring him into her world. Ironically, it is Liyana’s old Palestinian grandmother, one who has suffered the most in the family from the conflict, who welcomes Omer into her home and helps the rest of the family accept this Jewish boy. The story concludes with an aura of hope that Arabs and Jews might one day live side-by-side in peace, as Liyana’s family is trying to do.

Habibi is a good book in which to immerse younger readers because it convincingly demonstrates how universal teen feelings and issues really are, regardless of culture, religion, or ethnic background. The teenagers in the book act just as teenagers do, with all the emotions and angst American readers would expect. Liyana often talks about feeling like she is viewed as a half-breed, both by her American counterparts and her Palestinian relatives, and her challenges with discovering who she is and finding her place in this world. The book is unique in the fact that Liyana is describing her experience as an American immigrant to another country; most immigrant novels present the opposite view of an immigrant coming to America. The universal themes of young love, friendship, and a feeling of alienation from one’s parents and family are all present. As the book is written almost primarily from the Palestinian perspective, the novel also presents a good opportunity to introduce the topic of bias, and how students can detect bias in their reading. Liyana, while doing her part to try to bring about unity and peace between Jew and Arab in her family, also represents a very one-sided picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and without background information, students may not have a full understanding of how the conflict developed and the issues that make it so complicated, long-standing, and difficult to resolve. But this also represents an opportunity for research by the students to learn more about this region in the Middle East and its cultural and religious issues.

The book is well-written, with a lot of first-hand descriptions and cultural richness. Each chapter begins with a proverb, thought or phrase that helps the reader think more lyrically and deeply about the situations presented in the reading. However, the pacing of the book, and its strong relationship focus, as opposed to action focus, may prove to be a bit tedious for some middle school readers, particularly boys. For this reason, it is very important that teen readers be guided to make connections between their own thoughts, feelings, and relationship issues and those of the protagonist.

Teen Connections Because Middle Eastern literature comes from a perspective that is often ethnically, culturally, and religiously removed from your average American teenager, it is important to draw as many parallels as possible between the characters in ME literature and their American counterparts so that your students can better relate to and invest in what they’re reading. It’s important that teen readers have the opportunity to learn how to see Middle Eastern characters not as “others” but as people who could very well be their peers. Good novels based on teens’ lives in the Middle East do a great job of breaking down these inhibitions, because teenagers in all places of the world still share common experiences as they struggle to come to grips with their emerging adolescence, anxiety, issues with family and peers, etc. A great way to help our student readers connect better with ME literature is to emphasize the commonalities the students have with the characters and to find books that will allow them to connect well with and feel a kinship to the characters. This will also help them to understand the cultural situations better, because teens naturally can recognize the common experiences they share with the protagonists, and also any tensions or happiness due to those they do not, such as religion or culture.

Bias Another principal that becomes very important when studying ME literature is the issue of bias. This is particularly evident in the novel Habibi. Because of the many ongoing tensions in the region, much of Middle Eastern literature touches on troubles caused by violence or injustice, but often from one particular perspective. Because of this, a proper introduction into the culture, history, and politics of the region is a good idea before studying works from the ME. It also enriches the reading adventure for the young readers since they will have a better handle on what the characters are experiencing.

Students reading one work or the other without historical background information could be misled by the one-sided experience of any one author. Giving background and coaching students on how to recognize bias allows students to further learn about perspective and also teaches them to articulate the how and why they believe this particular perspective came about. It also builds empathy for more than one perspective.

Bias can be a challenging subject to tackle, particularly for ME literature, because both teachers and students can come to the classroom already armed with strong opinions on the situation in the ME and who they believe is at fault and what should be done about it. This is particularly true if the teacher or some of the students come from or have family in that region. While everyone’s initial perspective is very valuable to share, what makes the focus on bias such a great tool is that it not only allows students to recognize one-sided accounts when they read or hear about them, it also allows them to safely explore other viewpoints and perspectives that they may not have thought of before. If you can explore these issues using the cover of the character, then opinions and perspectives can be discussed without people feeling alienated or attacked for their personal beliefs.

Beginning with a foundation of studying the background and significance of the difficulties faced in the ME and the reading of different perspectives from different authors, students can learn to read a one-sided novel such as Habibi and detect the bias, all the while understanding and appreciating why it is there.

12. Habibi Project

Think about the following questions: -What is bias? -How is bias related to perspectives and points of view? -How can you identify bias in texts? -Why is it important to recognize and understand individual biases?

Part 1 Provide at least 3 examples of bias from within the novel, Habibi. Include page numbers from text along with a brief explanation. Be specific!

Part 2 Find a text related to the Middle East that shows bias. Present specific evidence from your chosen text that highlights a specific viewpoint being represented. How do you know it’s biased and in what ways? Next, write a paragraph discussing a potential opposing viewpoint to that of the text. How is this viewpoint different from that of your chosen text?

You may choose from a variety of texts including, but not limited to…
 * Magazine, Newspaper or Journal Articles
 * Encyclopedias, Atlases, Almanacs, or Textbooks
 * Non-fiction / Fiction novels
 * Graphic Novels / Manga