Event—Adult Education

The Homeland is Us: Reading Palestine as Past, Present, and Future

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What is the place of imagination in liberation?

Untitled cartoon featuring Handala, Naji al-Ali, c. 1973-1987. Source: Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait via Artsy.

Class Description

What is the place of imagination in liberation? This class evaluates imagination as a practice of resistance, historical preservation, and future-building, inviting students into the complex Palestinian condition through fiction. Travelling across the past, present, and speculated futures, various realities are uncovered and rediscovered in Palestinian short fiction. Course participants are encouraged to push against the threshold of an increasingly grim reality to uncover the capacity of imagination in the face of violent occupation.

This course will consist of lectures, discussions, and an optional short written reflection. Each week, we will be analyzing an assigned Palestinian short fiction. Participants are expected to read the text before each meeting.

Marah Abdel Jaber is a Palestinian writer, researcher, and creative. Her work focuses on constructions of the Palestinian nation, fragmented identities, environmental development, creative movements, and imagined space.

What to Expect

Format: In Person

Class Capacity: 24

Class Style: Mix of lecture and discussion; participation encouraged

Materials List

Required

  • Isabella Hammad, Recognizing the Stranger. Grove Press, Black Cat, 2024. ISBN: 978-0802163929
  • Adania Shibli, Minor Detail. New Directions, 2020. ISBN: 978-0811229074
  • Emile Habiby, The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist. Interlink Books, 2024. ISBN: 9781623717025
  • Heba Hayek, Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies. Hajar Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781914221026 (Please Note: We are unable to stock this book, but you can buy it directly from the publisher or from used bookstores like AbeBooks, or borrow the ebook through Library Stack.)
  • Sonia Sulaiman, Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction. Roseway Publishing, 2024. ISBN: 978-1773636948
  • Basma Ghalayini, Palestine +100. Comma Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-1910974445
  • Other Instructor-Distributed Materials

First Reading

The readings for this week are not required but are recommended

  • Recognizing the Stranger by Isabella Hammad
  • Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani (PDF sent by instructor)

A Brief Syllabus

  1. Narrating Palestine: An Experiment in Imagining Otherwise
  2. Reimagining The Past: The Self, The Other, and The In Between
  3. Reimagining The Past
  4. Present Fragilities: Between Longing and Preservation
  5. Speculative Futures: Apocalypse, Rebirth, Liberation
  6. Speculative Futures: Fiction as Prediction

Cost and Registration

6 Sessions, $270 ($243 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.

We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($270), Community Supported ($250), and Sponsor ($290). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.

To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.

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Call us at (312) 255-3700 or send us an email at adulteducation@newberry.org.

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