#  Middle East Literature in Transition: New Frontiers in the 21st Century 

 



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This working group, convened in Fall 2013, explores the way in which novels and short stories, and to a lesser extent plays and poetry, express or articulate the sociological, religious, and cultural changes occurring in the countries of the Middle East.

**Chair: [William Granara](/people/william-granara)**, CMES Director and Gordon Gray Professor of the Practice of Arabic

> The fears and the hopes and the anxieties and the tensions and the aspirations of Israelis, Arabs, Turks, and Persians are articulated more often through creative writing, through the novel and the short story, through plays and through poetry, than through other fields of inquiry. So to train our students in Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Persian, and to get them reading contemporary novels in the original, is to give them access to a world that is informative and challenging. — [CMES Director William Granara, Sept 18, 2013 ](/news/conversation-incoming-cmes-director-william-granara-0)



 

##  Academic Year 2014–15 Events 

 



  [### "I have no mother tongue, only my adopted language is my home"

 ](/event/i-have-no-mother-tongue-only-my-adopted-language-my-home-0?occ_id=0)April 3, 2014

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 2:00PM - 3:30PM EDT 

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 CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 

 

 In Person 

 Esty G. Hayim Author; Teaches creative writing at Seminar Hakibutzim College, Israel Esty G. Hayim, daughter of Holocaust survivors, was born in Israel. She studied theater and acting at Tel Aviv University and performed in leading theater houses in... 

 

 

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   [### Dark Literature in Arabic: Crime, Sci-fi, and Dystopias

 ](/event/dark-literature-arabic-crime-sci-fi-and-dystopias?occ_id=0)April 9, 2015

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 4:00PM - 6:00PM EDT 

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 CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 

 

 In Person 

 The Center for Middle Eastern Studies is pleased to present Ahmed Khalid Towfik Egyptian novelist, author & poet Former professor of medicine at Tanta University, Ahmed Khalid Towfik is the first Arab writer to explore the horror/science fiction genre and... 

 

 

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   [### The Thousand and One Nights: Sources, Transformations, and Relationship with Literature, the Arts and the Sciences

 ](/event/thousand-and-one-nights-sources-transformations-and-relationship-literature-arts-and-0?occ_id=0)Apr. 15 - Apr 17, 2015

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 12:00AM - 12:00AM EDT 

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 CGIS South, Rms S030 & S020; William James Hall B1 

 

 In Person 

 The Center for Middle Eastern Studies & Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) are pleased to present a conference organized by: Sandra Naddaff (Harvard University); Aboubakr Chraïbi (INALCO, Paris); William Granara (Harvard... 

 

 

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