مصطفي عبد الله زيد

Awarded Ph.D in English Literature by University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India

     in April 2018, for thesis entitled Race, Resistance and Humanism: A Comparative Study 

     in the Select Novels of J.M. Coetzee and Ghassan Kanafani.

     (Grade Distinction).

M.A.  (English Literature) from The English and Foreign Languages University,

       Hyderabad, India in 2010. (Grade A).

B.A.  (English Literature) from University of Pune, India; in1994. (Grade-Second Class).

Passed High School (12th Standard) in the Literary Stream- Alsadia Secondary Boys'

    School in 1990. (Grade-Good)

introduction to linguistics

This course is an introduction to the study of language.  It includes a definition of language as a system of human communication and what human language from other communication systems such as animals communication. Emphasis will be on the various linguistic levels including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and discourse analysis.

literature one

This course introduces students to the new and influential field of postcolonial studies through different literary genres, focusing on post-colonial writers from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East who through their writings were engaged with their countries’ colonial heritage on many levels.  It also highlights these writers’ response to the ways English literature served and/or contested the British Empire’s colonial project in texts, by such authors as Edward Said, Kipling, Kanafani and to colonialism, in general.  Readings include short stories, poetry, and essays by such writers as Jean Rhyse, Derek Walcott, Jamaica  Kincaid and Kamala Markandaya

literature two

Cadets read some of the most important theoreticians of the field such as Defoe, Charlotte Bronte, Hardy, Franz Fanon, Edward Said and Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Conrad and J. M.  Coetzee, Chinua Achebe.  Among the key issues and themes that will be examined in detail are representations of the other, language, history, identity, hybridity, intertexuality, and place and displacement. 

short story

The study of English can be seen both as a complement to general education, and also as a way to be acquainted with the vast array of literature composed in the language and learn to analyze it critically (imparting this later skill being the specific purpose of the Departments of English Language and Literature of universities across the world). Literary analysis isn’t merely a summary or review, but rather an interpretation of the work and an argument about the various issues depicted and literary devices used in it.

Short stories can serve as an important to teach critical thinking skills, style, grammar, and vocabulary, and to lay the groundwork for classroom debates and writing assignments. This course on short stories is presented as part of a larger unit of two courses on the genre of War Literature. This course is designed to acquaint students with selections of literature (short stories) pertaining to the causes of war and resistance, and examine the language of patriotism, pride, justice, violence, identity, loss, and memory inspired by such conflicts, just as the other course seeks to do the same things through a study of poetry.

Knowing the Context of a literary work is very important as it helps to understand the author’s perspective and bias, as well as tell the reader what the author is commenting on. So, this course aims to provide a short sketch of the backgrounds of the selected authors, in addition to the stories, to facilitate better understanding of the experiences of war and struggle.

        The list of the short stories to be taught in this course is yet to be finalized, but tentatively plans to include: Guests of the Nation (by Frank O’Connor), Old Man at the Bridge (Ernest Hemingway), The Things they Carried (Tim O’Brien), Only This (Roald Dahl), Two Friends (Guy de Maupassant), Editha (W.D. Howells), Civil Peace (Chinua Achebe)

{www.shortstoryguide.com/short-stories-about-war (most of the stories are available for download on this site)}

(There is another story-- by Iraqi author Muna Fadhil, called Prisoner of war. It is also recommended to be included. It does not talk about actual war but the effects of war later, how it separates families, causes loneliness. This is the link 

www.fictionsoutheast.com/prisoner-of-war/

poetry

This poetry course is presented as part of a larger unit of courses on Literature. This course is designed to acquaint cadets with selections of poems which are pertaining to the causes of war and resistance, and examine the language of patriotism, pride, justice, violence, loss, and memory inspired by such conflicts. Such poems will be chosen which deal with the men involved in war, the families left behind, the innocent victims of war, and war itself.

War poetry includes either poems written by soldiers, or poems dealing with the experiences of war, which may or not be written by soldiers. A constant tension in writings on War poetry is whether the emphasis should fall on war or on poetry, on cultural history or on literary form; whether the surrounding material world was more important to the soldier-poets, or a sense of poetic tradition. This course aims to provide the cadets an understanding of the social impact of war as reflected through the selected poems and a brief glimpse into the life and times of the poets. At the same time, being part of a literature course, it aims to help the cadets understand literary terminology such as setting, point of view, irony, historical perspective, use of poetic tools like rhyme, meter, figures of speech, and the author’s attitude toward his subject matter. Through discussions and assignments, this course will address whether the author was presenting his story objectively, or as a vehicle for speaking out against war, or as a way to extol the virtues of heroism and patriotism.

It also seeks to showcase at least a few modern poems which negotiate the changing meaning of war, occupation, colonization in today’s world. Some of the proposed poets to be considered for this course: Lord Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Lorna dee Cervantes.

What cadets will learn?

discourse analysis in English

This course introduces the cadets to the concept of discourse analysis.  Thus, the course deals with the contextual features surrounding the communicative act, namely, the speaker/writer, the listener/reader and the topic.  The issues to be addressed are the theme/rime assignment, the address terms, the familiar and formal levels of language use in addition to the distinct features of religious, political feminist or sexist and leftist discourse.  Samples of the spoken and written discourse are also presented for analysis to guide cadets to write in both modes

1. Presented a paper entitled “The Dream of Return in Ghassan Kanafani’s Returning to Haifa” at International Conference on Emergence of Globalization: Towards Transnationalism.16-18 February 2017.Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
2. Presented a paper entitled “Literature of Protest in Palestine with Special Focus on Ghassan Kanafani: Men in the Sun” in the International Conference on Literature, Culture & World Peace; 23rd&24th Sep, 2016. Pune, India.

1. Presented a paper on “An action research project examining the use of graded readers” in Contextualizing English Language within Palestinian Experience (CELPE) Symposium on April 23, 2019 at Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron.
2. Presented a research paper entitled “The Road Less Travelled: A Study of Dr. Izzeldein Abuelaish’s I Shall Not Hate as a responsible response to Trauma” in THE 21st ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST  6–8 June, 2019 The Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Str. Pitar Mos 7–13, Bucharest, Romania   Literature and Cultural Studies Section:  ‘Trauma, Narrative, Responsibility’.

Three poems: “I’m Lost in this Life”, “Lines to Ali Dawabsheh”, and “The Son Number

         Seven” published in Verses on Racism, Resistance and Refugee Crisis, Vol. 1. Ed.

         Shamenaz Bano. New Delhi: Authorpress. 2018. Print.

August 2017-Research paper entitled “The Dream of Return in Ghassan Kanafani’s   

       Returning to Haifa” published in the Creative Launcher Refereed e-journal in English-

        ISSN-2455-6580- Volume II-Issue III- U.G.C Approved Journal

        ( http://www.thecreativelauncher.com/previous_issue11.php)

August 2017-Research paper entitled “Literature of Protest in Palestine with Special Focus

          on Ghassan Kanafani: Men in the Sun” - Published in Virtuoso (A refereed

          Transnational Bi- Annual Journal of Language and Literature in English.) ISSN

           NO:2249-6076.- U.G.C Approved Journal- NO. 48896-Volume 7-Issue1 (Printed  

           Copy)