NEAR EASTERN LANGUAGES & CIVLZT
216
Spring 2020 (Deactivations ONLY)
Fall 2019
Intro To Persian Poetry
This course introduces some of the major genres and themes of the millennium-old Persian poetic tradition from ancient to modern Iran. Epic and romance, love and mysticism, wine and drunkenness, wisdom and madness, body and mind, sin and temptation are some of the key themes that will be explored through a close reading of poems in this course.The course suits undergraduate students of all disciplines, as it requires no prior knowledge of or familiarity with the Persian language or the canon of Persian literature. All teaching materials are available in English translation. Students are expected to attend seminars and take part in discussions
Every Other Term
Your department or program fields a variety of courses to meet distinct educational needs. Please explain how this course fits into your department's plan for participating in the general education curriculum of the College. The sector panel will want to know what is distinctive about this course along with the other courses your department lists in the sector that makes them suitable for the sector requirement.
Identifying this course as a General Education course is based on the broad set of humanistic themes, the deep cultural tradition representing approximately a millennium of development, as well as the exposure students will receive to a variety of common methodologies used in the study and analysis of literary forms across Middle Eastern and more generally world literature. The topic of the course is an excellent context in which to humanize and demystify Iranian culture through developing an understanding of its literary forms. The NELC department is endeavoring to enhance its presentation of Iranian studies and representing this field at the level of the General Requirement as well as the newly defined major and minor will increase the intellectual variety and richness that NELC courses bring to undergraduate education at Penn. The course will help to augment the representation of fields of inquiry within NELC in the general education offerings of the department.
Course usually offered in spring term
Arts & Letters Sector
Fatemeh Shams
Standing Faculty
Standing Faculty
Within the NELC curriculum, this course represents the Persian Studies program. But it offers any College student an exposure to the interdisciplinary and humanistic approaches to the literature and culture of the Middle East in the contemporary and historical periods.
Straightening the foundations of the Persian Program at Penn. Exposing the Collage students to an alternative version of Iran and the Middle East through literature and poetry. Attracting more students to the field of Middle Eastern Studies and potentially Persian Studies.
5 response papers (2-3 pages, double space, font 12) during the semester.
One final paper (7-10 pages, 1.5 space, font 12).
Class participation and group-work. Weekly Canvas Responses.
Sector II - History and Tradition