ENG 558: Arab American Literature

This course examines Arab American literature from the early twentieth century to the present, focusing on literary texts produced by Arab immigrants and their descendants in the United States. It situates this body of writing within its historical, cultural, and political contexts, with particular attention to the impact of the American Civil Rights Movement on the articulation and recovery of Arab immigrant cultural heritage.

Through close reading and critical discussion, the course explores key thematic concerns such as race, identity, gender, belonging, home and exile, as well as the cultural and ideological tensions between East and West that shape Arab American experiences and literary expression. By engaging these texts comparatively and historically, students gain insight into the formation of Arab American identity and the broader questions of migration, minority discourse, and cultural negotiation in American literature.