Azar Nafisi s "Reading Lolita in Tehran," ""Marjane Satrapi s comics, and Baghdad Blogger Salam Pax s Internet diary are just a few examples of the new face of autobiography in an age of migration, globalization, and terror. But while autobiography and other genres of life writing can help us attend to people whose experiences are frequently unseen and unheard, life narratives can also be easily co-opted into propaganda. In "Soft Weapons," Gillian Whitlock explores the dynamism and ubiquity of contemporary life writing about the Middle East and shows how these works have been packaged,...

Despite the tragic reality of the continuing Israeli-Arab conflict and deep-rooted beliefs that the chasm between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs is unbridgeable, this book affirms the bonds between the two communities. Rachel Feldhay Brenner demonstrates that the literatures of both ethnic groups defy the ideologies that have obstructed dialogue between the two peoples.
Brenner argues that literary critics have ignored the variety and the dissent in the novels of both Arab and Jewish writers in Israel, giving them interpretations that embrace the politics of exclusion and conform with...

This is one of the first books in English to explore Arab responses to Western culture and values in modern Arab literature. Through in-depth research El-Enany examines the attitudes as expressed mainly through works of fiction written by Arab authors during the twentieth, and, to a lesser extent, nineteenth century. It constitutes an original addition to the age-old East-West debate, and is particularly relevant to the current discussion on Islam and the West.

Alongside raising highly topical questions about stereotypical ideas concerning Arabs and Muslims in general, the book...

This book is a translation of one of the most important Turkish scholarly works of the twentieth century. It was the masterpiece of M.F. Koprulu, one of Turkey's leading, and most prolific, intellectuals and scholars. Using a wide variety of Arabic, and especially Turkish and Persian sources, this book sheds light on the early development of Turkish literature and attempts to show the continuity in this development between the Turks and that of Anatolia. Early Mystics in Turkish Literature addresses this topic within the context of other subjects, including Sufism, Islam and the...

This volume discusses The Thousand and One Nights' themes of space and travel showing how they are used not only as a setting in which the story unfolds, but also as the dynamic force which propels the heroes and the story to the final dA(c)nouement.

These events often symbolize a process of transformation, in which the hero has to search for his destined role or strive to attain the object of his desire. In this way, themes of travel are the narrative backbone of stories of various genres including love, religion, magic and adventure.

This book not only gives a fresh approach to...

"Examines a crucial period in Arabic literature which has received insufficient attention previously--the pre-modern writers of the 19th century . . . whose journalism and fiction not only shaped contemporary opinion but also subtly molded the contours and boundaries of discourse for the generations that followed."--Michael Beard, University of North Dakota

Dynamic and original, this study of the formation of modern Arab identity discusses the work of "pioneers of the Arab Renaissance," both renowned and forgotten--a pantheon of intellectuals, reformers, and journalists whose writing...

In a 2004 meeting marking the Arabian Nights' tercentennial at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenb?ttel, Germany, nineteen international scholars presented their work on the transnational aspects of the Arabian Nights. This volume collects their papers, whose topics range from the history of the Arabian Nights manuscripts, to positioning the Nights in modern and postmodern discourse, to the international reception of the Nights in written and oral tradition.

Essays are arranged in five sections. The first section contains essays on Galland's translation and its "continuation" by...