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.