Orient in Western Imagination (IHHIST-399)

This course will examine the images of South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa presented in the works of several European and American novelists including Paul Bowles, Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Lawrence Durrell, E.M. Forster, and Andre Gide. Particular attention will be paid to the contrasts between the images Western writers present of non-Western societies and the images the peoples of those societies have of themselves, as well as to the role of "the journey to the East" in the creative imagination of the West.