Course Descriptions
Winter Quarter (W22)
Dept/Description | Course No., Title | Instructor |
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HISTORY (W22) | 18A JEWISH TEXTS | WILLIAMS, M. |
Taking a broad definition of texts, this course tours more than two thousand years of history in ten episodes. Each week, through the thorough examination of a key primary text, the course will explore an element of Judaism and Jewish history. Throughout the entire course, attention will be paid closely to both the substance of the course – they key texts and their contexts – as well as to the historical thinking and interpretation skills the class seeks to cultivate. Finally, many classes will have a guest lecturer who is an expert on that particular text or period of exploration. | ||
COM LIT (W22) | 102W ORIENTALIST VISIONS | MOR, L. |
How did the West envision the Arab East and construct its own image in the process? How was the colonization of the Arab world facilitated by vision, both in the sense of ×´a way of seeing×´ and in the sense of ×´a plan for the future×´? And how do such Orientalist visions affect our world today? The term “Orientalism” was first used by the Palestinian scholar Edward Said to describe European and American prejudicial perceptions of the Arab world, which are regularly employed to rationalize colonial invasion and expropriation. We will begin this course by closely reading some of Said’s writing, as well as his interlocutors and critics, to better understand what Orientalism is, how it affects Western views of Arabs and Islam, and how it is related to such contemporary phenomena as immigration, the “war on terror” or cultural appropriation. We will then move on to examine the role of vision in colonial projects by focusing on three examples: Egypt, Algeria, and Palestine. We will read primary sources that document Orientalist visions for these lands, such as memoirs, travelogues, and personal letters. We will also engage with visual sources—photographs, art works, video games, television, and film—to better comprehend the function of visuality in Orientalism and to explore the responses of Arab artists to experiences of Orientalization. The seminar emphasizes critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Through short writing assignments and in-class workshops, students will gradually develop independent writing projects. | ||
ITALIAN (W22) | 150 HOLOCAUST IN ITALY | CHIAMPI, J. |
This course will concern itself with the response to the Holocaust in the memoirs of Primo Levi and Liana Millu, and in the fiction of Giorgio Bassani. Framing their writings will be brief readings in the work of historians Liliana Picciotto Fargion, Susan Zuccotti and Michele Sarfatti. |
Courses Offered by the Jewish Studies Minor or other Schools at UCI
Winter Quarter (W22)
Dept | Course No., Title | Instructor |
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