General and controversial definitions of culture, folklore, and popular literature from different theoretical perspectives; the study of major issues in Arab popular culture: “low/popular culture,” identity, dialects, colloquial and standard Arabic, politics of popular cultural production and consumption; the globalization and commodification of popular culture; the study of topics in popular culture, such as: popular odysseys, songs, laments, anecdotes and legends, proverbs, costumes, murals, market chants, nomadic theater, public space divisions; methods of collecting, studying and classifying popular culture: ethnography, case-study, and semiotics; the influence of concepts from modernity and globalization theories on popular culture and imagination.
