Summer Reading 2012
Summer Reading 2012
First Steps in Becoming a Wooster Student: The Summer Reading Program
2012: Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men
What does it mean to be a College of Wooster student? Our liberal arts education—in all its components—aims to develop in its graduates the capacities “to become leaders of character and influence in an interdependent global community.” The many dimensions of this education are expressed in the Graduate Qualities, and may be summarized in the phrase, Independent Minds, Working Together. What does this mean, and how will Wooster’s mission challenge you as you enter the College and progress toward graduation?
Much can be said about these ideals and questions, but for now, starting with the Summer Reading Program, the focus is on the core skills of critical inquiry: critical reading, critical thinking, and communicating clearly with others, in writing, in speech, and in listening. The purpose of the Summer Reading Program is to provide a challenging assignment for critical reading, thinking, and writing, to engage you with the mission of The College of Wooster from the first days you are on campus, in the ARCH program, in New Student Orientation, and the first day of classes.
Required Writing Assignment
Before you arrive on campus for New Student Orientation, read In the Country of Men and write an essay on this book using one of the writing prompts listed below. On Friday, August 24, when you meet for the first time with your First-Year Seminar class during New Student Orientation, you will submit your essay to your professor at that time. This provides both an opportunity for discussion of the book with your FYS class and professor, and a first writing assignment that will provide a benchmark for beginning to work with you in developing the skills of critical inquiry that are necessary for success at Wooster and beyond. Engagement with this book will also serve as an entry point for participating in the intellectual community of Wooster in relation to the Fall Forum series of lectures and associated events, which this Fall are focused on the Middle East. The Forum Series will begin during New Student Orientation with a lecture by Robin Wright on Friday morning, August 24, and continue throughout Fall Semester, including Hisham Matar on Tuesday, October 2. Student authors whose essays demonstrate noteworthy critical engagement with In the Country of Men will be invited for small group dinners with the various Forum Series speakers throughout Fall Semester.
Use the ideas and questions offered here to facilitate your reading and thinking about In the Country of Men. When you arrive on campus, bring the book, your essay, and any related notes and thoughts, so that you will be prepared both to begin benefiting from and contributing to Wooster’s community of learners.
Henry B. Kreuzman, Dean for Curriculum & Academic Engagement
Summer Reading 2012
Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men
- The primary perspective through which this story is told is that of a nine-year old boy, Suleiman. Through his eyes, you get a glimpse inside Libyan society during a period of upheaval and the rise of the Qaddafi regime in the 1970s. When those outside the Middle East (e.g., in the “West”) are asked to think about and understand this region in monolithic terms (e.g., “the Middle East,” or “the Islamic World”), we depend on the perspectives of many different kinds of experts. What is the value of gaining a perspective on the complexities of this region that is (a) fictional and (b) that of a child? How has reading In the Country of Men challenged and changed your perspectives on this region and its cultures?
- The title of the book, In the Country of Men, is nowhere mentioned specifically in the book. However, throughout the novel, we see Suleiman observing and imagining the lives of men (and older boys) all around him; we also see him asking himself what it means to be a man, and trying (with tragic consequences) to be a good, heroic man in the way he understands. At then end of the novel, how does he reflect on these ideals and the way in which they have shaped him? More broadly, to what extent are your ideals of what it means to be a good person shaped by ideals of what it means to be a good woman, or a good man? How are our ideals gendered?
- Because Suleiman is a young boy and an only child, whose father is absent throughout most of the story, the person most near to him most of the time is his mother, Najwa. But because of his youth, and perhaps also because as a boy he is focused on being a man, he has little understanding of his mother’s situation. As readers seeing Najwa through the child’s eyes, we are thus in a similar situation in our understanding of his mother. It is only at the end of the book—in the last paragraph—that Najwa really comes into view, as the now-adult Suleiman sees her for the first time as a woman in her own right. How has his understanding of her situation and history changed? How does your understanding of her change as you see her through Suleiman’s childhood and adult perspectives?
- At one point, Suleiman thinks, “We drift through allegiances, those we are born into and those we are claimed by, always estranging ourselves.” How do you see this process shape Suleiman’s life as a boy perhaps too young to understand the allegiances that he is born into and that claim him? How does he begin to reflect on this at the end of the book, from more of an adult perspective on his life? In relation to Suleiman’s story, what are the primary “allegiances” that you were born into and that claimed you? How do you understand yourself in relation to those processes now? What do we need to do in order to move beyond “drifting through allegiances”?
- In this novel, Najwa both mentions and criticizes the literary-mythic character of Scheherazade. Find a good reference source and read a bit about Scheherazade. How does her story relate to Najwa’s life story?