dear m,

i do wonder: how exactly IS english lit taught? and what is the pedagogical strategy to reconcile its obvious ideals with local/regional mores? what DO the professors tell their students about how english lit is to be perceived?

--raf*

As a male, I have never considered becoming a lesbian to handle rejection, but I have always found myself mysteriously patient enough to sit through several demos.

More seriously, the impression I get from educated and modernish Saudi females (and I do know some) is that they tolerate it, carry on a life behind the scenes (kind of like high school partying), and wish for improvement.

I suspect that because Saudis have creature comforts they can accept the situation more, and if they travel there is always an escape valve, and sometimes sexual segregation is desired (not the discrimination or restrictions), not for sexual reasons but the normal get-away-from-intergender tensions approach that the commenters made. Being apart from a great deal of Saudi males may be a relief.

raf

Your questions probably deserve an entirely separate entry to address them. There is a robust censorship of curricula where obvious works such as Dr.Faustus are disregarded. Many Christian motifs are glossed over and obvious sexual symbolisms left unexplained.

There is no attempt to reconciliate the teaching and mores as it is blatanly sold as a heritage of a different civilsation and culture (a fact that baffles me as as an English lit teacher myself as some point I always assumed that the whole point of any literature was to observe humanity and in turn achieve greatness when isolating transcendental traits. I find that Lebanese teenagers react the same way to King Lear's arrogance as British students do).

Indeed, some works that tackle spiritual tragedy and dislocation, the works of Conrad for example when taught are presented as a manifestation of the tragedies that occur outside Islamic society where spirtual dilemma never occur (!) and postgraduate students particularly are encouraged to base their hypotheses on comparisons between Islamic culture and Western culture using the English literature works in question as proof of the tortures that occur within non-Islamic societies.

Matthew, I totally agree. The fact however that they sit back and 'hope for improvement' surely means that they are not themselves spearheading it?

It sounds from your replies that basically they're not getting a proper education at all, despite all the graduates, and are in fact missing the point of several of these works. They may be getting as much out of English lit in Saudi Arabia as they would be from a trashy romance novel. In fact, internally, they may be approaching it in exactly the same way, as ridiculous fantasy not possible in their lives, but juicy to read.

More or less the case zurn. In fact, that is the whole point of educating females in Saudi. Since very few of them will ever need or will be allowed to work, the more decorative and self adorning the degree is, the better. The separation between edification and education is what perpetuates the churning out of batches of women who can analyse and deconstruct the character of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway (like how one would sport a Fendi bag) but would it would never occur to them to turn that eye onto themselves.

I get it from your article that you're going to join the KSU's staff of Eng Lit teachers. If that’s true, then are you going to try, by any chance, to raise these issues, or will you just join the crowd of oppressed women and do nothing about it (although there’s nothing one CAN do about it, since it’s not an easy issue to solve)?

Athena, thankfully I am not going to join KSU staff but I have tried to raise these issues with members that I sm socially acquanited with. The responses ranged from resigned agreement to uncomfortable denial.

Well, that's the usual response one gets from us Saudis, lol. Good luck.

Well, that's the usual response one gets from us Saudis, lol. Good luck.

Well-said!

You have no idea how frustrating it is to try to get those women to want to do anything about their, our, situation. Being a Saudi, I'm faced with the same obstacles on a daily basis. However, I never could give in. I look for compassion in fellow Saudi females and I get nothing but lifeless surrender. You might be surprised to know that I get more supportive and understanding responses from Saudi males. The sad truth remains; people are clinging to their traditions, the laws enforce male domination and virtually no one is doing anything to challenge that.

I was looking for any Saudi female movement online, and I found nothing. Would they ever rise and rebel! Are they that numb!