此课程检视在中东与北美的阿拉伯语族群之传统展演。藉由“西方”如何发现、翻译及书写“东方”的历史，我们将思考权力与政治在文化、叙事与展演的产生过程中所扮演的角色。此研究取向假设文化展演、语言艺术与口传文学可被自然地采藉改编，同时造成某些想法与观点的表述扭曲，故其所表述的言辞可能产生问题，必须审视。我们将特别关怀传统的展演实践，如何受到现代化结果的影响及其因应之道。
主题包括口传史诗展演、宗教叙事、可兰经吟颂展演、民间传说、个人展演、文化之生产与反抗。
This course examines traditional performances of the Arabic-speaking populations of the Middle East and North Africa. Starting with the history of the ways in which the West has discovered, translated and written about the Orient, we will consider how power and politics play roles in the production of culture, narrative and performance. This approach assumes that performance, verbal art, and oral literature lend themselves to spontaneous adaptation and to oblique expression of ideas and opinions whose utterance would otherwise be censorable or disruptive. In particular we will be concerned with the way traditional performance practices are affected by and respond to the consequences of modernization.
Topics include oral epic performance, sacred narrative, Koranic chant performance, the folktale, solo performance, cultural production and resistance.
