الخريف ٢٠٢٤، القاهرةمقرر قصير

Text and Desire: A Literary Journey through the Senses

التسجيل مغلق

تفاصيل المقرر

الدورة: الخريف ٢٠٢٤، القاهرة
يبدأ: الاثنين، ٢٣ سبتمبر
المواعيد: الاثنين، ١٨:٠٠–٢٠:٣٠
المدة: ٧ جلسات
طريقة الحضور: حضوري
لغة التدريس: الإنجليزية

ناقشه مع الذكاء الاصطناعي

اختر مساعد الذكاء الاصطناعي الذي تفضّله.
ستُفتح علامة تبويب جديدة، وستجد النص التوجيهي جاهزًا للاستخدام.
اضغط على إرسال لتبدأ استكشاف الصفحة من خلال الحوار، على طريقة سيلاس.

عن المقرر

What happens to us when we read? What senses do we activate? What is the relationship between text and pleasure, language and desire?

This course is a sensory journey through different kinds of literature, exploring how pleasure is mapped into the language and style of these texts. It is part crash course, part reading group, part writing and storytelling workshop, and part lab of group activities and text based games.

To set the tone for our exploration, we will start with the unique writings by Anaïs Nin, then explore desire and longing in a historical context with Shakespeare and/or Tracy Chevalier's writing, then explore some troubling themes in literature texts such as Lolita and Othello. We'll also explore sensuality and eroticism in both classical and modern in various Arabic texts at the centre of which there will by texts by Ibn Qayyim al-Juziyah and Nizar Qabbani and finally we will turn to Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Although you may expect a healthy dose of eroticism, this is not a course in erotica per se. Or, if it is about Eros, it is also about Eros as the force of life, about the longing that inhabits the gap between language and meaning and animates any textual activity, about the beauty of language, the joy of reading, the playfulness of metaphors, the interplay of imagery, and all the senses that are invited to partake in the textual experience.

مَن يقدّم المقرر

أحمد ضياء هو أحد مؤسسي معهد The Institute for De-Colonising Theory - IDCtheory –IDCtheory. حصل على درجة الدكتوراه من جامعة كولومبيا في دراسات الشرق الأوسط واللقب المرموق "صديق سيلاس". تركز أبحاثه على مسائل الاستعمار والذاتية والسلطة. بصفته زميلًا في سيلاس، قام أحمد بإجراء وتنسيق العديد من الدورات وورش العمل في العلوم الإنسانية التي تجمع بين النظرية السياسية والتاريخ والأدب. أحمد أيضًا من أشد المعجبين بالمسرح ولديه بعض الخبرة في هذا المجال.
من زميل التدريس
Some readers may be surprised by the sensuality and eroticism in many Arabic texts, classical and modern. In the following two sessions we will explore Arabic texts that defy mainstream expectations. First we will examine a plethora of poetry, tales, gossip prose, juridical and religious opinion, and other textual forms, at the centre of which Rawdat al-Muhibin by the leading medieval Islamic scholar, Ibn Qayyim al-Juziyah. Then we will turn to modern texts, at the centre of which the poetry of Nizar Qabbani.
A list of optional theoretical readings will be available in case we feel so inclined, but we will only allow the theory to interfere when necessary. As a general rule, we will let the literary texts guide our journey: maybe we will meet the characters, maybe we will visualize the scenery, maybe we will play with words and narratives, and maybe we will have deep discussions. Only the course participants would know.

مسار المقرر

يُعرض ٧ جلسات

سبتمبر ٢٠٢٤

To set the tone for our exploration, we will start with the unique writings by Anaïs Nin, and follow her search for the language of “woman’s sensuality, so different from man’s and for which man’s language was inadequate.” Nin, who believed “the language of the senses was yet to be discovered,” writes for the senses, and we will try to feel with her. If she describes a scene, try to visualize it; if she describes a painting or a piece of music, pause and look it up.
- A Spy in the House of LoveAnaïs Nin.
We will then explore desire and longing in a historical context: together we will decide whether we are going to read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (or perhaps we can find a way to read both).
- The Lady and the UnicornTracy Chevalier. Decided together with Romeo and Juliet (option 1); we may read both.
- Romeo and JulietWilliam Shakespeare. Decided together with The Lady and the Unicorn (option 2); we may read both.

أكتوبر ٢٠٢٤

We will then move to a more perverse and imposing text, Lolita by Nabokov. We will explore Nabokov’s mastery over the text, and the traps he sets for the readers, while criticizing the sexist aspects of this exhibitionist mastery.
- LolitaVladimir Nabokov. (we understand that Lolita is not for everyone. If you wish you may skip this class)
Staying with troubling themes, we will then move to Othello but read the text through the lens of desire. Here we can begin to see how race and racism, but also other dominant ideological formations, condition how we feel.
- OthelloWilliam Shakespeare.
- روضة المحبين ونزهة المشتاقين (Rawdat al-Muhibin)ابن قيم الجوزية (Ibn Qayyim al-Juziyah).
- مختارات شعرية وقصصيةSelected poetry and stories. The flow places the poetry of Nizar Qabbani at the centre of the modern texts.

نوفمبر ٢٠٢٤

And finally, we will turn to Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, not only because of its strong erotic content but more importantly because it explores desire which escapes meaning, , desire that exceeds the tenable, and desire in misrecognition —and through its pitfalls exposes the author’s desire for recognition which at times undermines an otherwise magnificent text.
- The Unbearable Lightness of BeingMilan Kundera.