| This course studies the Middle East through the lens of popular culture. We focus our attention on the role that popular culture plays in the contemporary Middle East and how the Middle East is reflected in US popular culture. We will begin by studying the interface between politics and popular culture in the 19th century with particular attention to the kinds of popular cultural forms that colonialism spawned in the West. We then move to a contemporary arena, examining, for example, how the current ‘war on terror’ is represented in U.S. and Middle Eastern media. We will examine a variety of popular cultural forms, texts, and practices -- including film, television, graphic novels, blogs and other internet technologies, shopping and tourism. In the course of our study, we will also consider a variety of contemporary political issues -- including terrorism, torture, and military occupation. We will be particularly attentive to the status of visual media -- painting, photography, television, film, and graphic novels -- and the ways that politics is expressed visually. Our course has a wide geographical span, examining popular culture in Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Turkey and within Middle Eastern immigrant communities in Europe and the United States. Readings are particularly attentive to issues of Orientalism, violence, gender, and identity. |
