ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses the way in which students' interest in Arabic or Islam could be directed in a way as to open up the Arabic text to the literary and the comparative, the visual and the artistic. Teaching humor constitutes a political move on the one hand, aimed at undermining the association of Arabic and Islam with conflict and violence, and an aesthetic one on the other, aimed at anchoring the study of Arabic literature in the Humanities at large. In Arab-Islamic culture, humor is found in scripture, literary texts, and scientific treatises. The language of humor and its medium – novel, film, or diary – operate in a comparative framework that cuts across cultural traditions. Humor allows students to recognize the humanity of characters in a novel or film, but also to situate the text itself in relation to other representations of humor across cultural and historical frameworks.
