Analytical Paper: Recommended Novels - Intro to International Studies Fall 2014

Tugrul Keskin – Introduction to International Studies

Fall 2014 – Monday and Wednesday 2:00 – 3:50 PM

International Studies - http://www.pdx.edu/intl/home

http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot.com/

http://introtoglobalstudies.com/blog/

Analytical Paper: In this requirement, you will select a book written by a famous international novelist, and will review (summarize and critique) the novel based on our textbooks. This paper should be at least 1500 words in length. You will find a list of recommended novelists on http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot or D2L. You must provide a word count at the end of your paper. The paper is due on Saturday November 30^th. Some recommended well-known novelists include John Steinbeck, Orhan Pamuk, Leo Tolstoy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Milan Kundera, Naguib Mahfouz, Azar Nafisi, Chinua Achebe, Arundhati Roy, and etc. You will find detailed information and recommended novels on http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot. Everyone will select a different novel. No one will read the same novel. Your selection must be approved and registered by a teaching assistant, Rosie David rosa@pdx.edu; therefore you must contact her directly regarding your selection. The deadline for selecting/registering your novel with teaching assistant, Rosie Davis is Sunday, October 27. The deadline for submitting your review is Sunday November 30. Late submissions will not be accepted.

If you choose a novel different than ones shown in the list below, I will need to approve your selection. 

For this paper, you will use our sample format, which is posted on D2L. Please follow the same structure.   

Please check the list below, select a book from this list, and then send Rosie David (Graduate Teaching Assistant) an e-mail rosa@pdx.edu specifying on which book you would like to write your review.

Teaching Assistant: Rosie David

Email: rosa@pdx.edu

Office: East Hall 330

Office Hours: Wednesday 4-6 PM or by appointment

 

Recommended Novels

Arabs-Turks-Iranians-Jewish

1.     The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings by Abolqasem Ferdowsi

2.     Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani

3.     Black Box by Amos Oz

4.     The Cheapest Nights by Yusuf Idris

5.     The Committee by Sun' Allah Ibrahim

6.     The Story of Layla & Majnun by Nizami

7.     The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat

8.     The Yacoubian Building: A Novel by Alaa Al Aswany

9.     Snow by Orhan Pamuk

10.  A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz

11.  My name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

12.  Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz

13.  Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk

14.  My Michael by Amos Oz

15.  Homesick by Eshkol Nevo

16.  The Story of Zahra: A Novel by Hanan al-Shaykh

17.  The Story of Zahra: A Novel by Hanan al-Shaykh

18.  To Know a Woman (Harvest in translation) by Amos Oz

19.  Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

20.  Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz

21.  The Book Saladin by Tariq Ali

22.  Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik

23.  Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif

24.  A Sultan in Palermo by Tariq Ali

25.  The Trench by Abdelrahman Munif

26.  Elsewhere, Perhaps by Amos Oz

27.  Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz

28.  To the End of the Land by David Grossman

29.  The Man who lost his shadow Fathy Ghanem and Desmond Stewart

30.  Karnak Café by Naguib Mahfouz

31.  Dreams by Naguib Mahfouz

32.  Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz

33.  A Perfect Peace by Amos Oz

34.  The Fairest Among Women by Shifra Horn

35.  Maryam's Maze by Mansoura Ez-Eldin

36.  The Lover by Abraham B. Yehoshua

37.  Diary of a Country Prosecutor by Tawfik al-Hakim

38.  A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev

39.  Wedding Night by Yusuf Abu Rayya

40.  Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

41.  The Savage Night by Mohammed Dib

42.  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

43.  Things I've Been Silent About: Memories by Azar Nafisi

44.  The Sirens of Baghdad by Yasmina Khadra

45.  The Attack by Yasmina Khadra

46.  In the Name of God by Yasmina Khadra

47.  See Under: Love by David Grossman

48.  A Grave in Gaza by Matt Beynon Rees

49.  Arabesques: A Novel by Anton Shammas

50.  Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar

51.  Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua

52.  The Zigzag Kid by David Grossman

53.  The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev

China

1.     The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: … by Lu Xun

2.     Red Sorghum: A Novel of China by Mo Yan

3.     Love in a Fallen City  by Eileen Chang

4.     Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir by Pang-Mei Chang

5.     The Rice Sprout Song by Eileen Chang

6.     Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas by Su Tong

7.     On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year … by Lisa See

8.     Shanghai Express: A Thirties Novel (Fiction … by Hen-Shui Chang

9.     The Rouge of the North by Eileen Chang

10.  Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A … by Dai Sijie

11.  Shanghai Girls: A Novel by Lisa See

12.  Beijing Coma: A Novel by Ma Jian

13.  Family by Pa Chin

14.  Dreams of Joy: A Novel by Lisa See

15.  Peach Blossom Pavilion by Mingmei Yip

16.  Rickshaw: The Novel Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu by She Lao

17.  Dragon Bones: A Red Princess Mystery (Red … by Lisa See

18.  Fortress Besieged by Zhongshu Qian

19.  Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

20.  Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min

21.  Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now by Jan Wong

22.  Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel by Lisa See

23.  The Bonesetter's Daughter: A Novel (Ballantine … by Amy Tan

24.  Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman

25.  Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

26.  Red Dust: A Path Through China by Ma Jian

27.  China in Ten Words by Yu Hua

28.  The Interior: A Red Princess Mystery (Red … by Lisa See

29.  The Last Empress: A Novel by Anchee Min

30.  To Live: A Novel by Yu Hua

31.  Son of the Revolution by Liang Heng

32.  Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of Chin... by Chen Guidi

33.  Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society by Adeline Yen Mah

34.  The Concubine's Children by Denise Chong

35.  Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chine... by Adeline Yen Mah

Latin and Central America

1.     Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges

2.     Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas

3.     Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly … by Laura Esquivel

4.     Daughter of Fortune: A Novel (P.S.) by Isabel Allende

5.     One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

6.     Ines of My Soul: A Novel Isabel Allende

7.     Island Beneath the Sea: A Novel (P.S.) by Isabel Allende

8.     Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

9.     Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

10.  Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

11.  Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

12.  Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah'... by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

13.  The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa

14.  The Autumn of the Patriarch (P.S.) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

15.  The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

16.  The Death of Artemio Cruz: A Novel (FSG Classics) by Carlos Fuentes

17.  By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano

18.  Guerrillas by V. S. Naipaul

19.  In a Free State: A Novel by V.S. Naipaul

20.  Waiting for the Barbarians (Penguin Great Books... by J. M. Coetzee

21.  A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

22.  Body Snatcher by Juan Carlos Onetti

23.  Hopscotch (Pantheon Modern Writers … Julio Cortazar

24.  Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

25.  Death's Dark Abyss by Massimo Carlotto

26.  Blow-Up: And Other Stories by Julio Cortazar

27.  The Death of Artemio Cruz: A Novel by Carlos Fuentes

28.  The Goodbye Kiss by Massimo Carlotto

29.  Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses by Isabel Allende

30.  Zorro: A Novel (P.S.) by Isabel Allende

31.  The Slum (Library of Latin America) by Aluísio Azevedo

32.  Born in Blood and Fire: Latin American Voices John Charles Chasteen

33.  Paradiso by José Lezama Lima

34.  I, the Supreme by Augusto Antonio Roa Bastos

35.  The President by Miguel Angel Asturias

36.  The Hour of the Star (Second Edition) by Clarice Lispector

Africa

1.     Things Fall Apart: A Novel by Chinua Achebe

2.     The God of Small Things: A Novel by Arundhati Roy

3.     A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe

4.     Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta

5.     No Sweetness Here and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo

6.     A Grain of Wheat (African Writers Series) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

7.     Tsotsi: A Novel by Athol Fugard

8.     So Long a Letter (African Writers Series) by Mariama B

9.     Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

10.  Purple Hibiscus: A Novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

11.  The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

12.  Efuru (African Writers) by Flora Nwapa

13.  Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

14.  Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

15.  God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane

16.  July's People by Nadine Gordimer

17.  Mother to Mother (Bluestreak) by Sindiwe Magona

18.  Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

19.  Girls at War by Chinua Achebe

20.  One is Enough (African Women Writers Series) by Flora Nwapa

21.  Xala by Ousmane Sembene

22.  Khabzela: The Life and Times of a South African by Liz McGregor

23.  The Slave Girl: A Novel by Buchi Emecheta

24.  Never Again (Africa Women Writers Series) by Flora Nwapa

25.  African Perspectives on Colonialism (The Johns H... by A. Adu Boahen

26.  Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo

27.  Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Revised Edition) (Lon... by D T Niane

28.  African Short Stories by Chinua Achebe

29.  Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol (African Writers) by Okot P'Bitek

30.  The Famished Road by Ben Okri

31.  The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of... by Amos Tutuola

32.  Chaka (African Writers) by Thomas Mofolo

33.  Houseboy (African Writers) by Ferdinand Oyono

34.  The Concubine by Elechi Amadi

35.  Yoruba Trickster Tales by Oyekan Owomoyela

36.  No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

37.  Death and the King's Horseman (Norton Critica... by Wole Soyinka

38.  Unbowed: A Memoir (Vintage) by Wangari Maathai

39.  Scarlet Song by Mariama Ba

40.  Nehanda by Yvonne Vera

41.  Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo

42.  Oroonoko (Penguin Classics) by Aphra Behn

43.  Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta

44.  Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf

45.  The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An … by Tepilit Ole Saitoti

46.  Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka

47.  Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa

48.  The Poor Christ of Bomba by Mongo Beti

49.  A Walk in the Night and Other Stories by Alex La Guma

50.  Weep Not, Child (African Writers) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

51.  The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (African … by Ayi Kwei Armah

52.  Comes the Voyager at Last: A Tale of Return to Africa by Kofi Awoonor

53.  This Earth, My Brother by Kofi Awoonor  This Earth, My Brother by Kofi Awoonor

Leo Strauss' Political Philosophy: Reviled But Redeemed

By Peter Berkowitz

Real Clear Politics - August 16, 2014

“Always assume that there is one silent student in your class who is by far superior to you in head and in heart.” This is the counsel Leo Strauss, among the most consequential teachers and scholars of political philosophy in the 20th century, offered an advanced graduate student who had asked for a general rule about teaching.  In a short essay published in the early 1960s, “Liberal Education and Responsibility” (based on a public lecture he gave), Strauss elaborated on his exquisite advice. “Do not have too high an opinion of your importance,” he said, “and have the highest opinion of your duty, your responsibility.”   A German-born Jew who emigrated to the United States in the 1930s and who, at the peak of his career—from 1949 to 1967—served as a professor in the University of Chicago political science department, Strauss was the author of more than a dozen books and some 150 articles and reviews about political philosophy. He examined the quarrel between the ancients and the moderns on the importance of religion, the moral and scientific premises of the social sciences, the impact of persecution on the manner in which great works of political philosophy were composed and, not least, the centrality to politics and justice of education. He was a brilliant and beloved teacher. 

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A New Book: Leftover Women The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China

Leta Hong Fincher

Zed Books, 2014

A century ago, Chinese feminists fighting for the emancipation of women helped spark the Republican Revolution, which overthrew the Qing empire. After China's Communist revolution of 1949, Chairman Mao famously proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky." In the early years of the People's Republic, the Communist Party sought to transform gender relations with expansive initiatives such as assigning urban women jobs in the planned economy. Yet those gains are now being eroded in China's post-socialist era. Contrary to many claims made in the mainstream media, women in China have experienced a dramatic rollback of many rights and gains relative to men.

Leftover Women debunks the popular myth that women have fared well as a result of post-socialist China's economic reforms and breakneck growth. Laying out the structural discrimination against women in China will speak to broader problems with China's economy, politics, and development.



Table of Contents
Introduction
1. China's 'leftover' women
2. How Chinese Women were shut out of the biggest accumulation of real-estate wealth in history
3. China's giant gender wealth gap
4. Back to the Ming dynasty
5. Wives caught in China's web of abuse
6. Fighting back

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A New Book: Expulsions By Saskia Sassen

Expulsions
Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy

Saskia Sassen

Harvard University Press, 2014

Soaring income inequality and unemployment, expanding populations of the displaced and imprisoned, accelerating destruction of land and water bodies: today’s socioeconomic and environmental dislocations cannot be fully understood in the usual terms of poverty and injustice, according to Saskia Sassen. They are more accurately understood as a type of expulsion—from professional livelihood, from living space, even from the very biosphere that makes life possible.
This hard-headed critique updates our understanding of economics for the twenty-first century, exposing a system with devastating consequences even for those who think they are not vulnerable. From finance to mining, the complex types of knowledge and technology we have come to admire are used too often in ways that produce elementary brutalities. These have evolved into predatory formations—assemblages of knowledge, interests, and outcomes that go beyond a firm’s or an individual’s or a government’s project.
Sassen draws surprising connections to illuminate the systemic logic of these expulsions. The sophisticated knowledge that created today’s financial “instruments” is paralleled by the engineering expertise that enables exploitation of the environment, and by the legal expertise that allows the world’s have-nations to acquire vast stretches of territory from the have-nots. Expulsions lays bare the extent to which the sheer complexity of the global economy makes it hard to trace lines of responsibility for the displacements, evictions, and eradications it produces—and equally hard for those who benefit from the system to feel responsible for its depredations.

 Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Savage Sorting
• 1. Shrinking Economies, Growing Expulsions
• 2. The New Global Market for Land
• 3. Finance and Its Capabilities: Crisis as Systemic Logic
• 4. Dead Land, Dead Water
• Conclusion: At the Systemic Edge

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A New Book: Topographies of Faith Religion in Urban Spaces

Edited by Irene Becci, Marian Burchardt, and José Casanova

Brill, 2013

Topographies of Faith offers a unique and compelling analysis of contemporary religious dynamics in metropolitan centers. While most scholarship on religion still sidelines questions of spatiality and scale, this book creatively draws on perspectives from urban studies to study the spatiality of religion in modern cities. It shows how globalization, transnational migration and urban expansion in big cities engender new religious forms and practices and their spatial underpinnings. Space affects urban religious diversity, religious innovations, decline or vitality. But it also shapes the relationships between religion and social equalities. Spanning distances between New York, Delhi and Johannesburg, the book also engages with issues of secularity and religious vitality in genuinely new ways.
Based on ethnographic explorations in cities across the globe,

Contents:

• Introduction: Religion Takes Place: Producing Urban Locality

• Alevis in Cemevis: Religion and Secularism in Turkey

• Somalis in Johannesburg: Muslim Transformations of the City

• Urban Aspirations in Mumbai and Singapore

• Excarnation and the City: The Tower of Silence Debates in Mumbai

• Connecting the Local, National and Transnational Powers of a Religious Youth Organisation in Berlin

• Religious Associations, Religious Innovations and Denominational Identities in Contemporary Global Cities

• The Geopolitics of Religious Spatiality and Falun Gong’s Campaign in New York

• Religious Involvements in a Post-Socialist Urban Space in Berlin

• Belonging and Success: Religious Vitality and the Politics of Urban Space in Cape Town

• Porous Boundaries: Hindu-Muslim Demarcation and Crossings in Delhi

• ‘Exit’ and ‘Inclusion’: The Changing Paradigm of Pentecostal Expression in the Nigerian Public Space

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A New Book: Max Weber: Modernisation as Passive Revolution

A Gramscian Analysis

Jan Rehmann, Union Theological Seminary and Free University, Berlin

BRILL, 2015

Basing his research on Gramsci's theory of hegemony, Rehmann provides a comprehensive socio-analysis of Max Weber's political and intellectual position in the ideological network of his time. Max Weber: Modernisation as Passive Revolution shows that, even though Weber presents his science as ‘value-free’, he is best understood as an organic intellectual of the bourgeoisie who has the mission of providing his class with an intense ethico-political education. Viewed as a whole, his writings present a new model for bourgeois hegemony in the transition to ‘Fordism’. Weber is both a sharp critic of a ‘passive revolution’ in Germany tying the bourgeois class to the interests of the agrarian class, and a proponent of a more modern version of passive revolution, which would foreclose a socialist revolution by the construction of an industrial bloc consisting of the bourgeoisie and labour aristocracy.

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