Since love is a human emotion, no wonder that Arabic literature -not dissimilar to world literature- reflects great interest in love motifs by Arab writers. Hundreds of classical texts, whether poetry or prose, immortalized the names of many Arab lovers who fought and sacrificed themselves for true love.

In this course, we shall delve into classical Arabic narratives relating to love, and examine their style and content; we shall also investigate how they inspired and influenced modern literature.

The lectures will involve a selection of interesting stories, legends and texts that constitute milestones in the development of Arabic love narrative fiction.

 The discussion will be accompanied by reading and analysis of chapters from legends and tales and other comprehensive   narrative passages, with emphasis on the works’ unique stylistic and linguistic characteristics and their literary contribution.