After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, one of the reigning sentiments was that "nothing will ever be the same again." Many literary critics interpreted the event and this sentiment as a crisis of story telling: How can we continue to tell the same kinds of stories after a trauma so intense?

Interestingly, the two short stories we have for Tuesday end with the events of Sept. 11. Why do you think they end with these events rather than begin with them? What would it mean for the stories to begin with Sept. 11?

Mohja Kahf's story also deals with the gender issues we discussed two weeks ago. How does her story relate to those themes (in her poetry, in Randa's work, etc.)? How does Sept. 11 affect the plot of her story?

As for the Nabeel Abraham article, you'll probably notice right away that it predates 9/11 by about ten years, which is truly unfortunate. However, it does provide an excellent background to the existing racism in American toward Arabs before 9/11. While you're free to use this article as an interpretive tool for the short stories, I'm curious to hear what is useful about it or not, other than the lack of facts and commentary on the treatment of Arab Americans after 9/11 (which we probably all know quite a lot about anecdotally--no-fly lists, detention centers, secret trials, violence etc.).