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Research Projects

 

Critical encounters: Feminism, femininity, and orientalism in Freya Stark's The southern gates of Arabia

 

This study locates points of intersection and possible negotiations among discourses of feminism, femininity, and orientalism in this hitherto undermentioned travelogue (1936) by the British imperialist, Freya Stark. The interpretation aims at showing how the multiplicity of subject positions complicates the encounter with the other culture, and, consequently, ensures a measure of reciprocity. Article to be rewritten and resubmitted for publication. Hout, S.

 

 

Exile, existentialism, and identity in Emily Nasrallah's Flight Against Time

This study examines exile and identity from the philosophical perspective of Sartrean existentialism in Emily Nasrallah's Flight Against Time (1981). The interpretation, based on contemporary travel theory and historical context, aims at elucidating the concepts of personal choice and individual moral responsibility as illustrated by the lives of Lebanese characters torn between war at home and exilic existence

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Article is forthcoming in Critique: studies in contemporary fiction (43.1) in fall 2001.  Hout, S.
 

Hajj

This study traces the development of the travelogue based on the pilgrimage to Mecca between the Middle Ages and the present day.


Article is forthcoming in The Literature of travel and exploration: An encyclopedia, in summer 2001. Hout, S.

 

Home, politics, and exile in Nadia Tueni's Archives sentimentales d'une guerre au Liban

 

This study offers a close reading of Nadia Tueni's long poem by focusing on the relationships among the concepts of home, politics, and exile. Of special concern is the exilic nature of, and exilic sentiment in, this collection. The semantic ambiguities of home and homeland, and the changing boundaries of the 'here' and 'there,' as illustrated in images of attachment to and withdrawal from Lebanese soil, are highlighted.

 
Article accepted for inclusion in book titled, Nadia Tueni's selected poems on the Lebanese war, ed. Christophe Ippolito. Volume is under review by Syracuse University Press. Hout, S.

Supported by URB

 

 

Of fathers and the fatherland in the post-1995 Lebanese exilic novel

This study examines the complex relationship between personal and national identities in three post-1995 Lebanese exilic novels: Rabih Alameddine's Koolaids: The Art of War, Tony Hanania's Unreal City, and Hani Hammoud's L'Occidentaliste. It is argued that alienation from the father (figure) causes estrangement from the fatherland as an apparatus of patriarchal authority.

Article is forthcoming in World Literature Today (Spring 2001). Hout, S.

 

Reading Travel Writing in Two Theme-Based Graduate Seminars

 

This article draws upon my personal experience of teaching two theme-based graduate seminars at AUB -- one on Orientalism and the other on Cross-Cultural Encounters -- in which the genre of travel writing was prominent.

Article is under review for publication. Hout, S.

 

 

The predicament of in-betweenness in the contemporary Lebanese exilic novel in English

This comparative study investigates the predicament of cultural in-betweenness, or hybridity, in two contemporary Anglophone Lebanese novels: Rabih Alameddine's, Koolaids: The Art of War (1998) and Tony Hanania's, Unreal City (1999). Various forms of nostalgia in the texts are discussed as important features of the postmodern condition of exile, in general, and the postwar Lebanese sensibility, in particular. The relationships among nationalism, exile (both physical and psychological), and personal identity are highlighted. It is argued that exile neither dampens nor strengthens nationalistic feeling. Instead of pitting exile against 'home' or nation, as two diametrically opposed realities, and singing the praises of the one or the other, both authors show exile to be independent of geography by locating it within the individual, the nation, and the host country.

Article is forthcoming in Articulating the nation: Literary landscapes from the Middle East and North Africa, eds. Suleiman, Y., and I. Muhawi.

 

How the British press reported the “Armenian Genocide”

 

This research examines the British newspapers, specifically the London Times of 1860-1900, to determine whether the Turkish allegations that the Genocide of 1915 was a result of World War One or it was premeditated and carried out long before war. In addition, the proceedings of the British Parliament will also be examined and compared with those of the newspaper articles. Expected date of publication: Summer 2003. Peltikian, K.

 

 

 

Publication Record

 

Aoun, J., and L. Choueiri. 2000. Epithets. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.

Bacha, N., A. Abou Ayash, H. Choukair, M. Maalouf, and M. Mikati. 1999.  Themes-Second Secondary Humanities. National Center for Educational Research and Development (NCERD).

Bacha, N., H. Choukair, M. Maalouf, and M. Mikati. 2000. Themes-Third Secondary Literature-Humanities. National Center for Educational Research and Development (NCERD).

 

Eid, A., R. Rashash-Shaaban, and S. Samra. 1999. Teaching English to Teachers of Art, First Year. National Center for Educational Research and Development (NCERD).

Hout, S. 2000. Grains of utopia: The desert as literary oasis in Paul Bowles's The Sheltering Sky and Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands. Utopian Studies 11 (2):112–136.

 

Lakkis, Kh., and M. Abdel Malak. 2000. Understanding the transfer of prepositions. Forum: English Teaching.

 

Peltekian, K. M. (ed.) 2000. Heralding of the Armenian Genocide: Reports in the Halifax Herald (1894-1922). Halifax, Nova Scotia: ACAAP.

 

———. 2001. Learning to write in a foreign language. Learning Through Writing: A compendium of assignments and techniques, ed. A. Wright. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Dalhousie University Press.

 



Abstracts, Conferences, and Proceedings

 

Choueiri, L. June 2000. Focus and yes-no questions in Lebanese Arabic. The Fifth Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics, Paris, France.

———. May 2001. The source of weak resumptives. The Third Conference on the Syntax and Semantics of Semitic Languages, Los Angeles, USA.

Hout, S. November 1999. Grains of utopia: The desert as literary oasis in Paul Bowles's The Sheltering Sky and Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands. 24th Annual Meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies. San Antonio, Texas, USA.

 

———. July 2000. The predicament of in-betweenness in the contemporary Lebanese exilic novel: The example of Rabih Alameddine's Koolaids. Abstracts of First Conference on Literature and Nationalism in the Middle East and North Africa, 18. Univ. of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

 

———. April 2001. The state of the nation in the contemporary exilic Lebanese novel. Imagine all the People: (De-)Constructing National Identities: Fourth Symposium. Norfolk, Virginia, USA.

 

Lakkis, K. July 2000. Presentation on the analysis of the UOP placement test. FIPLV-Federation De Langues Virante, Paris, France.

———. April 2001. Poster presentation on black & white Arabic proverbs vs multi-colored English proverbs. 35th International Association of English Language Teachers of English as Foreign Language (IATEFL) conference, Brighton, England.

Mikati, M. November 2000. Higher level skills in the new Lebanese curriculum. Regional Conference on Language and Change, Beirut, Byblos, Lebanon.

Rashash-Shaaban, R. April 2001. Don’t throw it in the trash! Use it in class! 35th IATEFL conference, Brighton, England.

 

Peltekian, K. M. February 2001. Using authentic material to teach the language skills at the intermediate and secondary levels (A two day workshop). Child World Promotions (NGO), Amman, Jordan.

 

Peltekian, K. M. March 2001. Using pop songs to teach language skills. TESOL Spain 24th Annual Convention, Seville, Spain.