MØNA1300 – History of Literature in The Modern Middle East

During this course you will:

• be presented to a selection of authors and short stories dealing with key topics in Middle Eastern literature and society from the mid-19th century to the present day.
• become familiar with some basic analytical tools and techniques of interpretation.
• learn to understand literature as a symbolic expression and gain insights into important literary traditions.
• be trained to see literary texts against their historical background and in a comparative as well as a wider cultural perspective.
• learn to discuss your analysis and interpretation of hypotheses in a workgroup and to present these orally in front of the class and in writing in the form of an essay.

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

The teaching consists of a total of 10 lectures/seminars.

Compulsory activities:

1. Compulsory attendance: You are required to attend 60% of the seminar teaching. In this course, you must attend 6 out of 10 seminars.
2. Prepare one oral presentation on at least 2 of the curriculum texts and lead the discussion in the corresponding seminar. This is typically done as a group activity. More details about the presentation will be provided on Canvas.
3. Submit at least one short text based on the short stories/novels that you have presented.

More information about the mandatory work and deadlines will be given during class and in Canvas. You must submit the mandatory work within the given deadlines, and you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the requirements for the compulsory activities.

Approval of the compulsory activities are only valid for the current semester. If you retake the course, you must submit a new draft in the semester in which you are taking the exam.

All compulsory activities must be approved to qualify for the exam. It is your responsibility to verify that you have obtained approval for all compulsory activities.

Absence from compulsory activities:

This course requires at least 60% attendance. This requirement is absolute.

The absence limit should cover normal absences due to illness, etc. You will therefore not be granted a valid excused absence based on a medical certificate, even if the absence is due to circumstances for which you cannot be blamed.

In special cases, for example, in the event of serious or long-term illness, you can apply for special needs accomodations. For questions about special needs accommodations, please contact studentinfo@ikos.uio.no

• Here you will find information about compulsory activities at the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

It is important that you familiarize yourself with the rules regarding absence from compulsory activities, to prevent being excluded from teaching and losing your eligibility to take the exam.

More information on compulsory activities at the University of Oslo:

• Common guidelines relating to compulsory activities - University of Oslo (uio.no)

Access to teaching:

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.

Oral Exam

The exam will consist of two parts: in the first part you will be asked 2-3 general questions on the basis of the lectures and the readings list. In the second part, you will be asked to compare the texts that you have presented in class with any other text from the textbook anthology.

The detailed information regarding the exam will be announced on Canvas.

You must submit the exam in Inspera - see guides for digital exams.

You are personally responsible for familiarizing yourself with the requirements and deadlines for the exam.

All compulsory activities must be completed and approved in order to take the exam.

You can find more information about the exam on the semester page of the course.