Throughout this semester, one of the things I've done is read various kinds of books. From books like The Prophet with its wise teaching and biblical style of writing to A Woman Is no Man its descriptive and heart aching story. In my very first entry, I mentioned wanting to know more writers from different cultures, and this course has introduced me to talented writers like Suheir Hammad, Kahlil Gibran, and Etaf Rum whose work I will continue to read after this course is over. I am the type of person to stick to one type of writing style, so reading books from authors with such diverse writing style as well as the poems we look at really help me explore literature in a new light.
I also mention of expanding my knowledge on Arab American culture as well as their experience post 9/11. While reading my past blogs, I can see how much I've learned in regard to Arab Americans post 9/11. Moustafa Bayoumi's How Does it Feel to Be a Problem gave an insightful experience of how Arab Americans were treated through Rasha's story. Once in a promised land is a book that I chose for my presentation, and this book also gave me a really good insight into how life was like post 9/11. Reading about how the characters lost their friends and people who they once trust wholeheartedly turning their back of them was saddening and it showed me different ways in which the tragedy impacted their lives. There was many examples of the way Americans treated Arab Americans in the book, and the ignorance, xenophobia, and racism were shocking but important to learn of because it allowed me to understand how big of an issue it is. 9/11 is an event that everyone knows of, and I remember learning about it in school and other places, but how Arab Americans were impacted by this tragedy isn't something I personally ever been taught of. This course has given me the opportunity to learn and understand the extent of injustice that this group went through because I was only ever aware of the discrimination, but never fully understood what kinds of experience they had.
In a cultural aspect, I've learned a lot about Arab culture, and it is a culture that is so different from my own and it was a great experience to put myself in a whole new perspective and angle to learn more about Arab culture. One of the most memorable events from this class is trying the food that Dr. Esa bought for us just because it was really delicious :). Learning new words, and listening to music from a different culture was really interesting as well.
This course has been challenging because there is a lot of reading to be done, but the readings were interesting, which made the classwork easier. Although it was a bit hard to read so many books in a pretty short amount of time, looking back at the number of books that I've read during this semester is really accomplishing. Suheir Hammad is definitely an author that I've to recommend to my friends, and one of the most impactful authors that I was introduced to in this course. The movies and Films also made the course really fun and watching the film version of The Prophet was a really great experience.
Overall, I truly believe that I've expanded my knowledge on Arab American experience and culture as well as literature as a whole throughout this course, and I've found authors that I really like and will continue to read their works.
