NMC244H1

The Arab Spring and Cultural Production

This course examines the Arab revolutions that began in 2011 and their ongoing repercussions through the lens of cultural production. How have Arab writers and artists contributed to and reflected upon the Arab revolutions known as the Arab Spring? How has cultural production mediated the demands, aspirations, and struggles of the Arab peoples during and after these transformative revolutionary struggles? The cultural texts examined in this course range from those that mediate the euphoric optimism heralded by the revolutions to those that narrate and reflect upon the dystopian aftermath after revolutionary failure, including fiction and art that considers the reassertion of authoritarian rule, the violence of civil war, and the homelessness of exile. Through novels, poetry, music, art, and film, the course will broadly consider the role of culture as an alternative mode of narrating and historicizing the Arab revolutions.