Love, Desire, and Sexuality in Islamic Literatures

Exploration of what separates love from lust and how erotic desires and sexual practices intersect with beliefs in conversation with foundational and contemporary literature from Islamic societies. Examination of questions on the relationship between romantic, familial, and divine love; gender, sexuality, and the body; and the politics of reading desire cross-culturally. Diverse ideas about the themes, from late antiquity to present, are assessed through historical framework offered by Islam. Various ways of understanding love are encountered through primary sources that range from the Qur’an and pre-Islamic poetry; to mystics and philosophers such as Ibn Arabi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna); to the romances of Rumi’s Masnavi and Nezami’s Layla and Majnun ; to the tales of the One Thousand and One Nights and the framing of Islamic narratives in Bollywood and American pop culture. Examination of how literary representations reflect different historical norms, and how texts can impact the norms of their contexts as well.

P/NP or letter grading.