Courses and seminars
Index / Activities / Courses and seminars / Popular Culture in the Arab World: The twentieth century
Popular Culture in the Arab World: The twentieth century
From January 18, 2021 until March 05, 2021The course will be held on two Sundays, March 14 and 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break.
ONLINE
Microsoft Teams platform
The course will be held on two Sundays, March 14 and 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break.
You must sign up in advance.
In Spanish.
On two Sundays, March 14 and 21, we will be holding a new online edition
of this course on art, music, film and folk dances in the region.
Registration has now begun
The course is a reflection upon popular culture in the Arab world throughout the twentieth century, a time when the culture of entertainment was developed and spread worldwide, driven mainly by the Egyptian and Lebanese cultural industries. To examine this, the course provides a historical overview of the main forms of artistic expression produced by the people themselves, and by the elite for the people’s consumption, placing a highlight on the instrumental nature of such culture to serve the purposes of Arab nationalism and other similar local ideologies, such as Palestinian nationalism.
The sessions will discuss four main subjects: the plastic arts (signage and graphic humor), music, film and dance. At each session, we will view, analyze and interpret different forms of popular art production, taking a look at their socio-historic context and the symbolism used in the works, in order to reveal their explicit or implicit ideological intentions and allow those attending to grow familiar with the most widespread aesthetics and popular values in the Arab world.
General objectives
By the end of the course, those attending will:
▪ Gain general overall knowledge of the socio-historical and political events in the Arab world throughout the twentieth century, above all the main countries which produced and distributed pop culture on an international scale (Egypt and Lebanon).
▪ Be able to recognize emblematic art, film and music productions from the period, created for consumption by the masses.
▪ Become familiar with a whole series of Arab music and film performers who were iconic during the twentieth century, identifying their ideological positions.
▪ Be able to interpret the basic symbolism that can be seen in pan-Arabist and Palestinian nationalist political signs and posters.
▪ Be able to determine relationships of similarity and differences with European pop art productions, thus strengthening their intercultural skills and awareness.
▪ Have acquired significant sociocultural knowledge about the Arab world, which will promote effective communication at ease with the Arab people with whom they interact.
Profile of individuals for whom the course is intended:
Those interested in pop and mainstream culture. Arabic language students. Plastic and stage artists interested in the Arab world. Employees of companies who have to maintain direct contact with Arab clients or partners. The general public.
Sessions
The course will be taught on two Sundays, March 14 and 21, 2021, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
• 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. - Session 1: Visual art and propaganda: political signage. Old and new forms of poetic-musical expression: rap and zajal (Victoria Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla)
• 3:30 to 7:00 p.m. - Session 2: The development of graphic humor in the written press. Theater and television (Nadia Jallad)
Sunday, March 21, 2021
• 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. - Session 3: Middle Eastern dance and the Egyptian film industry (Victoria Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla)
• 3:30 to 7:00 p.m. - Session 4: The music industry and underground music (Nadia Jallad)
The sessions will discuss four main subjects: the plastic arts (signage and graphic humor), music, film and dance. At each session, we will view, analyze and interpret different forms of popular art production, taking a look at their socio-historic context and the symbolism used in the works, in order to reveal their explicit or implicit ideological intentions and allow those attending to grow familiar with the most widespread aesthetics and popular values in the Arab world.
General objectives
By the end of the course, those attending will:
▪ Gain general overall knowledge of the socio-historical and political events in the Arab world throughout the twentieth century, above all the main countries which produced and distributed pop culture on an international scale (Egypt and Lebanon).
▪ Be able to recognize emblematic art, film and music productions from the period, created for consumption by the masses.
▪ Become familiar with a whole series of Arab music and film performers who were iconic during the twentieth century, identifying their ideological positions.
▪ Be able to interpret the basic symbolism that can be seen in pan-Arabist and Palestinian nationalist political signs and posters.
▪ Be able to determine relationships of similarity and differences with European pop art productions, thus strengthening their intercultural skills and awareness.
▪ Have acquired significant sociocultural knowledge about the Arab world, which will promote effective communication at ease with the Arab people with whom they interact.
Profile of individuals for whom the course is intended:
Those interested in pop and mainstream culture. Arabic language students. Plastic and stage artists interested in the Arab world. Employees of companies who have to maintain direct contact with Arab clients or partners. The general public.
Sessions
The course will be taught on two Sundays, March 14 and 21, 2021, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
• 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. - Session 1: Visual art and propaganda: political signage. Old and new forms of poetic-musical expression: rap and zajal (Victoria Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla)
• 3:30 to 7:00 p.m. - Session 2: The development of graphic humor in the written press. Theater and television (Nadia Jallad)
Sunday, March 21, 2021
• 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. - Session 3: Middle Eastern dance and the Egyptian film industry (Victoria Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla)
• 3:30 to 7:00 p.m. - Session 4: The music industry and underground music (Nadia Jallad)
Registration
The course has a duration of 14 class hours, taught in four sessions lasting three and a half hours each. The course price is 120 euros and the number of participants is limited to a maximum of 25. Those interested must sign up here using this form and make the proper payment by March 8 (after signing up, you will receive an email with the account number into which you should deposit payment for registration).
Victoria Khraiche Ruiz-Zorrilla has a PhD in Semitic Studies from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Arabic Philology and has a Master’s degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language. She has been a lecturer of Spanish at the University of Damascus and a contributing educator at the Cervantes Institutes in that capital city and Cairo. At present, she is an associate Arabic literature professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and of Spanish language at the Fundación Ortega-Marañón in Toledo, activities which she combines with translation and teacher training on teaching Spanish as a foreign language (ELE). Moreover, she was a teacher of Spanish as a foreign language in the programs given by Asilim (Association for the Linguistic Integration of Immigrants in Madrid) at the Refugee Reception Center (CAR) in Alcobendas, at La Casa Encendida and at its own headquarters.
Nadia Jallad has a bachelor’s degree in Management and Business Administration from the European University in Damascus and is a graduate in Asia and Africa Studies with a Master’s degree in Contemporary Arab and Islamic Studies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Jallad worked in Syria as a project director within several international oil companies, and as a teacher and trainer of adults and children for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Since she arrived in Spain in 2011, she has received training on teaching the Arabic language, having specialized in teaching Levantine Arabic and Arabic for business. She has taught courses on the Levantine dialect and standard Arabic at various academies and at the NGO Asilim (Association for the Linguistic Integration of Immigrants in Madrid), where she is responsible for the Arabic teaching programs. Since 2015, she has taught Arabic courses at Casa Árabe’s Language Center and has given various workshops on Levantine Arab culture.
Nadia Jallad has a bachelor’s degree in Management and Business Administration from the European University in Damascus and is a graduate in Asia and Africa Studies with a Master’s degree in Contemporary Arab and Islamic Studies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Jallad worked in Syria as a project director within several international oil companies, and as a teacher and trainer of adults and children for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Since she arrived in Spain in 2011, she has received training on teaching the Arabic language, having specialized in teaching Levantine Arabic and Arabic for business. She has taught courses on the Levantine dialect and standard Arabic at various academies and at the NGO Asilim (Association for the Linguistic Integration of Immigrants in Madrid), where she is responsible for the Arabic teaching programs. Since 2015, she has taught Arabic courses at Casa Árabe’s Language Center and has given various workshops on Levantine Arab culture.