This course focuses on the origins and development of the novel genre in the modern Arabic literary tradition. The course examines the aesthetic qualities of the novel as an artistic form as well as the ways it has represented and intervened in the modern social, political, and cultural upheavals that have shaped the Arabic-speaking world from the mid 19th century to the 21st century. Students will read literary criticism that addresses the Arabic novel’s emergence and consolidation as a major literary form and will engage with contemporary methods of literary analysis and interpretation. Topics addressed in the course include textual representations of colonialism and post-colonialism, gender and sexuality, representations of the peasantry, the nation-state and Arab nationalism, and discourses of progress and modernity. Authors include Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Yahya Haqqi, Naguib Mahfouz, Tayeb Salih, Latifa al-Zayyat, Mohamad Choukri, and Hanan al-Shaykh. Readings of novels and criticism in English translation.