Arabic Home"The trouble is that no one is quite sure what culture is. Not only is it an essentially contested concept, like democracy, religion, simplicity, or social justice; it is a multiply defined one, multiply employed, ineradicably imprecise. It is fugitive, unsteady, encyclopedic, and normatively charged."
(Gertz, 2000)
"The image of a world full of people so passionately fond of each other's cultures that they aspire to celebrate on another does not seem to me a clear and present danger; the image of one full of people happily apotheosizing their heroes and diabolizing their enemies, alas, does."
(Gertz, 2000)
This introductory course seeks to offer a broad introduction to culture and cultural expressions in Arabic-speaking communities. It will also seek to explore language use as reflector and creator of Arab culture. Subjects to be discussed range from the micro-level of language choice or language use in daily life to the macro-level of national language policies within the domains of government and education across the Arabic-speaking world.
By examining the work of a number of writers from linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, political science and gender studies, we hope to consider such topics as Orientalism, the impact of colonial heritage on language and identity, language attitudes, cultural expressions as perceived by Western and Arab researchers, e.g., privacy, modesty, honor, politeness, veiling in the Muslim world, and Muslim space.
