Martyrdom is usually associated with death that involves witnessing to truths too important and valuable to be forgotten. However, without communal remembrance and memorialization, such deaths will be forgotten, won't they? Martyrs seem to require intellectual and creative effort from communities, including resistance to attempts to erase memory. In this seminar, students examine different secular and religious accounts of martyrdom in the modern Middle East, and different communal attempts to ensure remembrance and resist erasure. Students learn about Armenian, Iraqi, Israeli, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish experiences. We consider many different approaches to the subject matter, including film, literature, memory and museum studies, philosophy, public sculpture, and social-political theory.
Counts Toward Concentrations: International Relations, Middle Eastern Studies
To find books for this class, please visit the St. Olaf Bookstore.