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.

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.

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.

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.

Form and History in Modern Arabic Poetics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Fakhreddine
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Prose Poem ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Fundamental Forces ◽  
Modern Arabic

Modern Arabic poetic forms developed in conversation with the rich Arabic poetic tradition, on one hand, and the Western literary traditions, primarily English and French, on the other. In light of the drastic social and political changes that swept the Arab world in the first half of the 20th century, Western influences often appear in the scholarship on the period to be more prevalent and operative in the rise of the modernist movement. Nevertheless, one of the fundamental forces that drove the movement from its early phases is its urgent preoccupation with the Arabic poetic heritage and its investment in forging a new relationship with the literary past. The history of poetic forms in the first half of the 20th century reveals much about the dynamics between margin and center, old and new, commitment and escapism, autochthonous and outside imperatives. Arabic poetry in the 20th century reflects the political and social upheavals in Arab life. The poetic forms which emerged between the late 1940s and early 1960s presented themselves as aesthetically and ideologically revolutionary. The modernist poets were committed to a project of change in the poem and beyond. Developments from the qas̩īdah of the late 19th century to the prose poem of the 1960s and the notion of writing (kitābah) after that suggest an increased loosening or abandoning of formal restrictions. However, the contending poetic proposals, from the most formal to the most experimental, all continue to coexist in the Arabic poetic landscape in the 21st century. The tensions and negotiations between them are what often lead to the most creative poetic breakthroughs.

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.

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.

scholarly journals A Review of Kahlil Gibran’s Major Creative Works (Ulasan Hasil Karya Kreatif Utama Kahlil Gibran)

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-253
Author(s):  
Homam Altabaa ◽  
Waleed Fekry Faris ◽  
Adham Hamawiya
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Literary Movement ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Modern Arabic ◽  
Critical Overview

Kahlil Gibran is one of the most important writers of modern Arabic literature and one of the most successful poets of English in the twentieth century. He is undoubtedly a pioneer among Arab poets and novelists writing in English and the most important figure in the Émigré literary movement. His world-wide popularity is due in large part to his universal spiritual message of love and compassion. This study, focusing on both his Arabic and English works, seeks to explore the various contextual aspects that affect all of Gibran’s works since his birth in Mount Lebanon.  It also presents a critical overview of all his works for readers and critics that seek a deeper appreciation and a more comprehensive understanding of this literary genius. The study highlights the spiritual element which serves as the link that unifies his Arabic and English works and propels them to enduring literary and popular success across cultures. Keywords: Kahlil Gibran, Āmigré Literature, Diaspora Writers, Spirituality, Perennialism.            Abstrak Kahlil Gibran merupakan salah seorang penulis yang tersohor dalam kesusasteraan Arab moden dan salah seorang penyair Inggeris yang berjaya pada abad kedua puluh. Kredibiliti beliau tidak diragukan kerana beliau merupakan perintis dalam kalangan penyair dan novelis Arab yang menulis dalam bahasa Inggeris dan tokoh terpenting dalam gerakan sastera Émigré. Sebahagian besar popularitinya di seluruh dunia adalah disebabkan oleh mesej rohani universal cinta dan belas kasihannya. Kajian ini difokuskan kepada kedua-dua karya Arab dan Inggerisnya untuk meneroka pelbagai aspek kontekstual yang mempengaruhi semua karya Gibran sejak kelahirannya di Gunung Lubnan. Kajian ini juga memberikan gambaran keseluruhan yang kritis mengenai semua karya beliau kepada pembaca dan pengkritik yang mencari penghayatan yang lebih mendalam dan pemahaman yang lebih komprehensif tentang kehebatan sastera ini. Kajian ini juga mengenengahkan unsur kerohanian yang berfungsi sebagai penghubung yang menyatukan hasil karya Arab dan Inggerisnya dan mendorong mereka kepada kejayaan sastera dan popular yang berkekalan di seluruh budaya. Kata Kunci: Kahlil Gibran, Sastera Āmigré, Penulis Diaspora, Kerohanian, Perenialisme.

scholarly journals Openness and Closedness: Four Categories of Closurization in Modern Arabic Fiction

1970 ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Taha
Keyword(s):  
Social Reality ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Open Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Arabic Fiction ◽  
Modern Arabic

The discussion of the four categories of ending and closure in modern Arabic literature in terms of openness and closedness clearly indicates the interrelations between the ending and the model of the textual reality, and the interrelations between this model and the extra-literary reality. It seems that when the historical, and especially the political and the social reality slaps writers across the face and stands before them in all its might and immediacy, they do not remain indifferent and write a literature with optimistic, promising, and closed endings; and vice versa: a text with a model of reality which does not relate to a well defined piece of history ends with a more open type of ending and becomes a closure in the reader.

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