Alexander Key
Alexander Key
Assistant Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature
Focal Groups:Philosophy and Literature
Workshop in Poetics
Office Hours:
Spring 2013: Tuesdays 2:00pm to 4:00pmBIO:
Alexander Key's interests range across the literary and intellectual history of the Arabic and Persian-speaking worlds from the seventh century, together with Western political thought and philosophy. He received his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Harvard University's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in May 2012.
He is currently working on two books. One is a study of the Arabic philosophy of language, with a focus on the critical eleventh century. Its three chapters ("Arabic", "Philosophy", and "Language") will make the argument that Arabic-speaking intellectual culture was particularly productive when it came to thinking about language, and that the resulting theories constitute a valuable contribution to our conversations about the philosophy of language. The second book is a philological study of the tenth/eleventh century litterateur and polymath Ragib al-Isfahani, which will include the first ever edition of Ragib's poetics.
Alexander is a founding editor of New Middle Eastern Studies (http://www.brismes.ac.uk/nmes/), where he has edited articles on femininity in 1920s Lebanon, women Muslim leaders in Central Asia, Iran's nuclear program, Salafi conceptions of citizenship, and Art in the Arab Spring.
CURRICULUM VITAE:
Download (right click and "save as")EDUCATION:
Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, May 2012.
M.A. in Arabic and International Relations, University of St. Andrews, June 2001.
News & Events
May 30, 2013
Last Thursday, May 23rd 2013, the DLCL's...
May 3, 2012
The DLCL is pleased to announce that Russell Berman, Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities,...
Courses
-
COMPLIT141AAut2012-13
An investigation into the concept of literature in mediaeval Arabic. Was there a mediaeval Arabic way of thinking? We look to develop a translation for the word "adab," a concept that dominated mediaeval Arabic intellectual culture, and is related in some ways to what we mean today when we use the word literature. Our core text is a literary anthology from the 900s in Iraq and we try, together, to work out what literature meant for the author and his contemporaries. Readings, assignments, and class discussion all in English.
-
COMPLIT149A/346Win2012-13
The primary litmus test of proficiency in the Arabic language is, and has always been, a command of classical Arabic poetry. Study and memorize the great lines of Arabic poetry with a manual that has stood the pedagogical test of time from the eleventh century until today. Questions of literary merit, poetic technique, metaphor, and divine and human linguistic innovation are all raised by the text that we will read together. Readings in Arabic, assignments and discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
-
COMPLIT151A/351ASpr2012-13
Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
-
COMPLIT146A/347Spr2012-13
An examination of the events of 2011 in the Middle East through literature. We will read short stories, poetry, graphic novels, and blogs in order to try and work out whether the revolution could have been predicted, and how it took place. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
