The reading so far is focused solely on Balfour’s speech to the House of Commons. It feels like a build up to a bigger claim, and I can slowly see, so to say, the different points come together to form a claim. What stands out as important is that Said takes a British man’s point…
Reflection: Vision and Justice
I attended the talk given by Professor Sarah Lewis about the “ethics of the image” or the importance of the foundational right of just representation especially in contexts of American history and racial prejudice. I found the topic wholely fascinating; how she talked about the lack of regard or recognition as a form of violence…
The Orient First Draft
In the first scene where we see the main character Aladdin on the screen, he is presented as a “street rat” and a thief running away from the soldiers. It is an action-packed scene with Aladdin and his monkey Abu cleverly tricking the guards and avoiding them, all while singing a song. It is in…
Ernst Analysis
In ‘Islam In The Eyes Of The West’, Ernst makes one overarching argument; the ‘so-called West’ has entirely inaccurate notions of the Islamic world as a civilization separate from itself. He bridges the gap between the two by emphasizing their history and reducing the alienated lens the West views Islam from. He puts forward three…
Summarizing Staninger
Summary 1 In the article, Staninger highlights the fact that Jasmine is a widely adored character only because of her American behavior, personality, and characteristics. Her religion and ethnicity are forgettable due to her lack of accent, euro-centric features, and ideas that represent Western feminism. Staninger then juxtaposes Western feminism and Middle-Eastern feminism, challenging the…
Reflection on The Nights
The most notable thing in the prologue to me was the recurrent theme of misogyny. It was everpresent through nearly every sentence. In subtle ways such as use of words like “slut” (p.68), the king calling the women “his women and his concubines” (p.63) (which is ironic considering he was angry about them sleeping with…
Paraphrase
The lady would begin the story, and I would listen, first apprehensively, knowing from experience that she would improvise, depending on how early or late the hour.” The Arabian Nights, trans. by Haddawy based on ed. by Mahdi, New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. (p. 7). Yet both the usual incidents and the extraordinary coincidences are…
The Great Allentown Fair
The Great Allentown Fair didn’t seem all that great to me. If we’re being honest, it didn’t seem very fun at all. Maybe it was the way the sun chose that day to blind me or the fact that someone or the other seemed to be straying and going missing every few minutes. Maybe it…
Me As A Writer
I have been writing ever since I was a kid, as has most of the population. But I truly fell in love with writing in the third grade, once I realised I was better at it than my peers at the time. 8-year-old Avani could not be happier to have found what set her apart….
