Shérazade at the Museum : A Visual Approach to Teaching Leïla Sebbar's Novel

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    Abstract

    Students studying Leïla Sebbar's Shérazade, 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts have difficulty understanding Shérazade's reaction to the images of "Oriental" women she encounters on her museum visits to the Louvre and Pompidou Center. This article describes an approach to teaching the novel that prepares students to view visual representations of Arab women from Shérazade's perspective. After an initial viewing of representative images and an introduction to key concepts such as "Orientalism," students follow Shérazade into the museum where they observe how her gaze gradually replaces that of the western male artist. She rejects the role of "Odalisque" in order to define herself.

    Original languageAmerican English
    JournalAmerican Association of Teachers of French
    Volume80
    StatePublished - Feb 1 2007

    Disciplines

    • French and Francophone Literature
    • Women's History

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