Love And Sexuality In Modern Arabic Literature

Covers the entire history of modern Arabic literature from the late-19th century to the end of the 1980s, with examples drawn from countries as diverse as Egypt and Kuwait. Although the main accent is on the prose of Egypt and the countries of the Mashreq, North African literature is also included.

An introduction to Modern Arabic Literature, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present

This book covers 60 years of translations, studies, and other writings, which represent Iraq's national literature, including recent works of numerous Iraqi writers living in Western exile. By drawing attention to a largely overlooked but relevant and extensive literature accessible in English, it will serve as an invaluable guide to students of contemporary Iraq, modern Arabic literature and other fields such as women's studies, postcolonial studies, third world literature, American-Arab/Muslim Relations, and disapora studies.

Arab cultural discourse has been slow to respond to changing sexual behaviour. The contributors to this collection pick up the slack, ranging across such disciplines as literature, history, sociology and psychology. Is Damascus the 'chastity capital' of the Middle East, where perceptions of wealth and class fuel female rivalries? How do gay men cruise in Beirut? How do young women in Tunis cope with both social pressures to become thin and family pressures to gain weight? What do Lebanese creative-writing students write about sexual practices versus public behaviour? The fresh, compelling research topi covered include masculinity and migration; colonialism and sexual health; fantasy and violence; and domestic workers and sexual tensions. 'Other people's sex lives have always been a source of fascination, and nowhere more so than in the Middle East ... Ground-breaking.' New Statesman

The essays, which discuss authors in a variety of literary genres and across the spectrum of the region concerned-from Iraq in the East to Tunisia in the West-provide clear evidence of the gradually changing roles of the indigenous and the imported which are an intrinsic feature of the movement known in Arabic as al-bahada (cultural revival) and the way in which Arab litterateurs chose to respond to the inspiration that such changes inevitably engendered. --

Studies of Palestinian society, economy, and politics are appearing with increasing frequency, but works in English about Palestinian literature, particularly that written in Israel, are still scarce. This book looks at this literature within the political and social context of Palestinian society, with a special focus on literature written during the Intifada "uprising" period (1987-93).

Love has been an important trope in the literature of the region we now call the Middle East, from ancient times to modern. This book analyses love poetry in various ancient and contemporary languages of the Middle East, including Akkadian, ancient Egyptian, Classical and Modern Standard Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish and Kurdish, including literary materials that have been discovered and highlighted for the first time. Together, the chapters reflect and explore the discursive evolution of the theme of love, and the sensibilities, styles and techniques used to convey it. They chart the way in which poems in ancient poetry give way to complex and varied reflections of human sentiments in the medieval languages and on to the modern period which in turn reflects the complexities and nuances of present times. Offering a snapshot of the diverse literary languages and their relationship to the theme of love, the book will be of interest to scholars of Near and Middle Eastern Literature and Culture.

Looking at women, politics, and culture in Tunisia from 1950s independence to the 1970s, highlighting the centrality of women to post-colonial state-building.