In Black Wave, Kim Ghattas seeks to tell “the untold story of those…who fought and continue to fight against the intellectual and cultural darkness that slowly engulfed their countries in the decades following the fateful year of 1979.” Choose FOUR (balanced between low-level and high-level) individuals from the book who have engaged in this fight and explain how their lives illustrate the themes of Ghattas’ book.
Guidelines for writing (and a basis for grading)
The assignment is, first and foremost, an analysis of Ghattas’ book. A paper that does not focus squarely on details and themes from her book will receive a failing grade.
Choose four individuals that illustrate four distinct stories from various parts of the book. It is not impressive to choose all of your examples from one or two chapters of the book.
Devote some space in your essay to the themes you see being illustrated by the four lives you choose. Define and explain the themes. Briefly explain how the theme appears in parts of the book beyond the lives you choose to cover.
Give your paper a clear, original title that matches its content.
You are encouraged to use other class material in your paper, especially Gelvin’s textbook, to provide background information. The main focus of the paper, though, must be Black Wave. (It is not required or expected that you will use material that is not assigned to the class.)
Provide citations to the readings when you use quotations or when you are referring to a specific instance or idea. Use simple parenthetical references. References to Ghattas can be just the page number (3). References to other sources should include the name and page number (Gelvin, 122). If you use material that is not assigned in the course, you must include full footnote references in the format of the Chicago Manual Style. If you are using a format of the book other than a printed copy, you must include chapter references.
Papers should be about 1800 words long (+/- 180 words is fine). Every word processing program has a word count option—you can easily check the length of your paper.
Themes to consider:
1. The variation of revolutions
2. Competition with each other
3. The parallels between Sadat and Sadr
4. Hezbollah and Lebanon
5. The Lebanon equation to balance sectarianism
6. Civil War
7. Iranian Infiltration
8. Transnational Connections (i.e., Najeb, Pajuwar Pakistan, et al)
9. Religion and nationalism
10. What did the Islamic Revolution snuff out?
11. Saudi/Iranian Compeitition
12. Sunni/Shia split and why?
13. Cold War conditions
14. 1979: Huge Paradigm Shift (e.g., the Siege of the Holy Mosque, the Siege in Mecca, Afghanistan Invasion, Iranian Revolution, et al)
15. How revolutions take the lid off things. How they are both political and theological. How they perpetuate and victimize.