NES 1922

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  • Schedule of Classes - February 16, 2018 10:59AM EST
  • Course Catalog - February 12, 2018 11:18AM EST

NES 1922
FWS: The Sons of Sinbad: Readings in Arabic Travel Writing

Course information provided by the 2017-2018 Catalog.

Is the Sinbad story merely a story of wondrous events aimed at entertaining its readers? Or does its symbolic language tell us something about the nature of crossing frontiers and encountering the unknown? How do we locate significant moments in a given travel narrative and on what basis do we analyze these moments? In The Sons of Sinbad: Readings in Arabic Travel Writing, we will do a close reading of a number of primary literary texts in Arabic travel writing from both the medieval and the modern periods. The main goal of the seminar is to develop the students' skills in understanding literary texts and talking about them through a series of writing assignments. Readings include, but are not limited to, the English translations of: "The Story of Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights; The Travels of Ibn Battuta by Ibn Battuta;  Mission to the Volga by Ibn Fadlan; The Journey of Ibn Fattouma by Naguib Mahfouz; and Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. 


Course Attribute (CU-ITL)

When Offered Fall.

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Syllabi: none

  •   FWS Session. 

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 17599 NES 1922   SEM 101

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  • Instruction Mode: In Person

    For more information about First-Year Writing Seminars, see the Knight Institute website at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute.