Wednesday, September 16, 2009

First Look into This Class...

I am very excited about this class, though a little intimidated, too!  I think this class and its awesome focus on Middle Eastern literature is going to be an amazing journey!  Even more, I am very excited about my group, Israeli Literature.  I cannot wait to see what interesting things I can find out about Israeli literature, especially since I have never really read any of it before!

                  The book that we have been reading together, Orientalism, has been very intriguing so far.  I have heard about Orientalism before, and have a rough idea of what it is, but have not studied it in depth until now.  The book and what we have discussed in class so far has caused me to contemplate my world view and how it has been affected by being raised in the West.  Until now I never would have thought that there could have been a different “North” and “South,” or a different map of the world, if they had been based on an un-European point of view.  I had also not realized the greatness of the tragedies that happened to many of the indigenous people of the lands that were being colonized by European nations.  All of these new realizations has caused me to think much more deeply about my worldview. 

                  Also, I really enjoyed the article that we read about Dr. Webb’s book that is going to be published.  I was very impressed with how much research was involved with the class that the article was about, how many different sorts of activities the students participated in for the class, and how many student quotes there were in the article (even though Dr. Webb said that there had been many more before the article was published).  I am thrilled and honored that Dr. Webb is having us help him with this book project!

                  See you all in class tomorrow!

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