CONN 222 | Muslim Fictions.

This course asks two questions: what does it mean to look at literature from an Islamic perspective and what does it mean to look at Islam from the angle of its literatures? This will open doors onto Muslim modes of thought, being, and critique as a way to destabilize Eurocentric thinking. The course seeks to correct abiding scholarly and popular stereotypes of Islam as puritanical, conservative, or unimaginative. At its core, this course takes up the idea that our world is comprised of narratives. Narratives of European supremacy have dominated the world and global education systems for hundreds of years. By approaching Muslim stories, we will begin to dismantle this mode of storytelling. The goal, though, is not to read Muslim texts uncritically. These texts unfold their own particular, situated biases and stereotypes that students will learn to interrogate and question. Students will read the Qur¿an, 1001 Nights, and other texts through literary, religious studies, and historical lenses.