A Thousand and One Nights and the Novel

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard van Leeuwen
Keyword(s):  
Magical Realism ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The West ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
Modern Arabic

This chapter examines the influence of Alf layla wa layla (A Thousand and One Nights), the ingenious Arabic cycle of stories, on the development of the novel as a literary genre. It shows that the Nights helped shape the European novel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The chapter first explains how the French translation of the Nights and its popularity in Europe led to its incorporation in world literature, creating an enduring taste for “Orientalism” in many forms. It then considers how the Nights became integrated in modern Arabic literature and how Arabic novels inspired by it were used to criticize social conditions, dictatorial authority, and the lack of freedom of expression. It also discusses the Nights as a source of innovation for the trend of magical realism, as well as its role in the interaction between the Arab world and the West.

Stranger Fictions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca C. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Global Circulation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Arabic

Zaynab, first published in 1913, is widely cited as the first Arabic novel, yet the previous eight decades saw hundreds of novels translated into Arabic from English and French. This vast literary corpus influenced generations of Arab writers but has, until now, been considered a curious footnote in the genre's history. Incorporating these works into the history of the Arabic novel, this book offers a transformative new account of modern Arabic literature, world literature, and the novel. This book rewrites the history of the global circulation of the novel by moving Arabic literature from the margins of comparative literature to its center. Considering the wide range of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century translation practices, the book argues that Arabic translators did far more than copy European works; they authored new versions of them, producing sophisticated theorizations of the genre. These translations and the reading practices they precipitated form the conceptual and practical foundations of Arab literary modernity, necessitating an overhaul of our notions of translation, cultural exchange, and the global. The book shows how translators theorized the Arab world not as Europe's periphery but as an alternative center in a globalized network. It affirms the central place of (mis)translation in both the history of the novel in Arabic and the novel as a transnational form itself.

Studying Modern Arabic Literature

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Global Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
The Face ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Modern Arabic

This book is devoted to the life and academic legacy of Mustafa Badawi who transformed the study of modern Arabic literature in the second half of the twentieth century. Prior to the 1960s the study of Arabic literature, both classical and modern, had barely been emancipated from the academic approaches of orientalism. The appointment of Badawi as Oxford University's first lecturer in modern Arabic literature changed the face of this subject as Badawi showed, through his teaching and research, that Arabic literature was making vibrant contributions to global culture and thought. Part biography, part collection of critical essays, this book celebrates Badawi's immense contribution to the field and explores his role as a public intellectual in the Arab world and the west.

The transformation of reality and the Arabic novel's aesthetic response

1994 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabry Hafez
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Aesthetic Response ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rapid Pace ◽  
Modern Arabic

The rapid pace of the change sweeping through the Arab world over the last few decades has profoundly affected both its various cultural products and its writers' perception of their national identity, social role and the nature of literature. The aim of this paper1 is to discuss the major changes in the sociopolitical reality of the Arab world, the cultural frame of reference and the responses of one of the major literary genres in modern Arabic literature: the novel. It is assumed here that there is a vital interaction between the novel and its socio-cultural context, in that novels encode within their very structure various elements of the social reality in which they appear and within whose constraints they aspire to play a role. Their generation of meaning is enmeshed in a variety of cultural, psychological and social processes, and their reception therefore brings into operation an array of experiences necessary for the interpretive act.

Ziadeh, May (1886–1941)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bayan Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Literary Figure ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Modern Arabic

May Ziadeh was a prominent literary figure and salonnière in the Arab world in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. A journalist, essayist, author and literary critic, she was also known for being a spellbinding orator and an unusually gifted stylist and translator. Ziadeh was best known for instituting a long running weekly salon (1911–1931) in her home that brought together leading men and women in the period when Egyptian anti-colonial nationalism was at its height. Ziadeh was also a strong advocate of the emancipation of women in the Arab society. Famous for being moderate, Ziadeh did not equate modernity with the denial of Arabic cultural heritage in blind imitation of the West. Many critics believe that modern Arabic literature has not produced a female writer of Ziadeh’s calibre and that her contribution to the feminist cause cannot be overlooked.

scholarly journals SEJARAH PRA KEMUNCULAN NOVEL ARAB

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 184
Author(s):  
Moh. Wakhid Hidayat
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Literature ◽  
The Third ◽  
Modern Arabic ◽  
Classical Arabic

Novel (riwayah) is categorized as a genre of modern Arabic literature. The birth of this genre has something to do with the revival period of Arabic in general. Yet the pre-natal of this new genre in Arab world is left undiscussed. This research aims at disclosing the birth of Arabic novel. It is found that Egypt has been the center of the labor of this genre. Its pre-natal period is marked by the translation of the Western literature and the resurrection of the genre of maqamah. There are some arguments on the situation and condition of the pre-natal of the Arabic novel. First, it was imported from the west. The second argument is that novel is indigenous genre, and the third is that novel is rooted from both classical Arabic and modern Western world.

The Novel and the Maqāma

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Relative Length ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Modern Arabic

This chapter examines the influence of the maqāma, a short, often comic tale written in rhymed prose, on the modern Arabic novel. The maqāma and the novel share a number of features, including openly fictitious protagonists, the use of a plot, and relative length. This chapter begins with an overview of the maqāma as a literary genre, then discusses the work of Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq and his links to the maqāma tradition, along with Badī‘ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī’s influence on Muḥammad al-Muwayliḥ ī. It also explores the influence of maqāmas on modern Arabic literature from the nineteenth century and beyond. Finally, it assesses the role of the maqāma in the development of the modern Arabic novel.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL REALISM (AL-MAŻHAB AL-WĀQI’Ī) TOWARD MODERN ARABIC LITERATURE / PENGARUH ALIRAN REALISME (AL-MAŻHAB AL-WĀQI’Ī) BARAT TERHADAP SASTRA ARAB MODERN

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Mohammad Yusuf Setyawan
Keyword(s):  
Great Influence ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
The West ◽  
The People ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Philosophical Realism ◽  
Modern Arabic ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
Descriptive Method

This study aims to find out the intricacies of philosophical realism (al-Mażhab al-Wāqi’ī) and its influence on modern Arabic literature. It is undeniable that literary genre that grew up in the west have had a great influence on the development of literature in the world, including Arabic. This research was a literature review that used a qualitative descriptive method by examining and reviewing several related literature. The result showed that realism emerged as a response to the romanticism philosophy which tends to the subjectivity of writers and the depiction of objects that are full of imagination. Furthermore, the western realism has also influenced modern Arabic literature, both poetry and prose. Realism made Arabic poets aware that love poems were no longer relevant to the reality of the people who were in the midst of crisis due to colonialism. Writers began to invigorate the principles of statehood, nationality, and humanity. However, the adoption of western realism, in some aspects, is contrary to Islamic values. This philosophy directs literature towards materialism, atheism, fulfillment of physical needs, and so on.

The Diaspora of the Novel

1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-146
Author(s):  
Artemis Leontis
Keyword(s):  
Uneven Development ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
The Novel ◽  
History Of The Novel ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type

Reflection on the history of the novel usually begins with consideration of the social, political, and economic transformations within society that favored the “rise” of a new type of narrative. This remains true even with the numerous and important studies appearing during the past ten years, which relate the novel to an everbroadening spectrum of ideological issues—gender, class, race, and, most recently, nationalism. Yet a history of the genre might reflect not just on the novel’s national, but also its transnational, trajectory, its spread across the globe, away from its original points of emergence. Such a history would take into account the expansion of western markets—the growing exportation of goods and ideas, as well as of social, political, and cultural forms from the West—that promoted the novel’s importation by nonwestern societies. Furthermore, it could lead one to examine the very interesting inverse relationship between two kinds of migration, both of which are tied to the First World’s uneven “development” of the Third. In a world system that draws out natural resources in exchange for technologically mediated goods, the emigration of laborers and intellectuals from peripheral societies to the centers of power of the West and the immigration of a western literary genre into these same societies must be viewed as related phenomena.

scholarly journals Symbolism of Water in Classic and Modern Arabic Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 258-265
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hamad
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
Water Springs ◽  
Modern Arabic

Water in Arabic literature has literal and symbolic meanings. Water is one of the four elements in Greek mythology; life would be impossible without water and it is a synonym for life; life originated in water. Springs, wells, rain, seas, snow, and swamps are all associated with water. Each form of water may take on a different manifestation of the original from which it comes about. Arabic literature employs the element of water in poetry, the short story, and the novel. We find it in titles of poems: Unshudat al-matar (Hymn of the Rain) and Waj’ al-ma’ (The Pain of Water); and novels: Dhakirat al-ma’ (The Memory of Water); Taht al-matar (Under the Rain); Matar huzayran (June Rain); Al-Bahr khalf al-sata’ir (The Seas Behind the Curtains); Rahil al-bahr (Departure of the Sea); and many others. This study aims to answer the following questions: How does the element of water manifest in Arabic literature? What are the semantics and symbolism of the different forms of water in the literary imaginary? The study refers to six different significations for water in classical and modern Arabic literature: water as synonymous with life, purity and the revelation of truth, separation and death, fertility and sex, land and homeland, and talent and creativity.

scholarly journals When Writers Activate Readers: How the autofictional blog transforms Arabic literature

1970 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 73-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Pepe
Keyword(s):  
Active Role ◽  
Internet Technology ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Interactive Game ◽  
Hybrid Genre ◽  
Modern Arabic

The adoption of Internet technology in Egypt has led to the emergence a new literary genre, the ‘autofic-tional blog’. This paper explores how this genre relates to the Arabic understanding of literature, using as examples a number of Egyptian autofictional blogs written between 2005 and 2011. The article shows that the autofictional blog transforms ʾadab into an interactive game to be played among authors and readers, away from the gatekeepers of the literary institutions, such as literary critics and publishers. In this game the author adopts a hybrid genre and mixed styles of Arabic and challenges the readers to take an active role in discovering the identity hidden behind the screen and making their way into the text. The readers, in return, feel entitled to change and contribute to the text in a variety of ways.Keywords: autofictional blog; ʾadab; modern Arabic literature; Egypt

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