Arabic Reading Group: Hasan Hourani’s Hasan Everywhere
Hasan Hourani, a young Palestinian writer and visual artist, died in 2003 in a tragic drowning accident in the ancient port of Jaffa at the unseasonably young age of 29. The writer’s tragic life-story seems inseparable from the “children’s book’’ which Hasan left behind—Hasan Everywhere—with its childhood adventures and incomplete sketches. The title itself suggests a certain ambiguity: Who exactly is Hasan? Does the name refer to the author’s personal longing for travel in a historical context that places severe restrictions on physical mobility and a gifted child’s dreams? Is Hasan’s imaginative quest for beauty and love merely an inward journey, an escapist fantasy? Or does the name likewise evoke images of the infinitely clever character—al Shater Hasan—who appears in popular folktales that are passed down orally from one generation to the next? What role does this shared imaginative world play in transforming the aesthetic into the political?
In this reading course, we will explore how Hasan Everywhere can be read both as “children’s” literature and as a return to the enchanted world of childhood with its insistence on the primacy of the imagination—or khayal. Here the child’s imaginative work figures as a form of psychic resistance, an affirmation of collective joy that refuses to be confined by harsh historical realities. This course is designed for students who have either completed three semesters of Critical Arabic or can read the target language at an intermediate level. At the beginning of each class the instructor will introduce new vocabulary, cover any grammar with which students may be unfamiliar and work on Arabic syntax. The objective of this course is to improve reading proficiency, and provide students with the skills needed to translate selected passages. The text can be purchased online.
Course Schedule
Sunday, 10:30am-12:30pm ETOctober 11 — November 15, 2026
6 weeks
$355.00
Registration Open