Trials of Arab Modernity

Trials of Arab Modernity

Literary Affects and the New Political

  • الكاتب: El-Ariss, Tarek
  • الناشر: Fordham University Press
  • ISBN: 9780823251711
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780823252367
  • eISBN Epub: 9780823252350
  • مكان النشر:  New York , United States
  • سنة: 2013
  • رقمي: 2013
  • شهر: أبريل
  • اللغة: الإنجليزية

Challenging prevalent conceptualizations of modernity—which treat it either as a Western ideology imposed by colonialism or as a universal narrative of progress and innovation—this study instead offers close readings of the simultaneous performances and contestations of modernity staged in works by authors such as Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Tayeb Salih, Hanan al-Shaykh, Hamdi Abu Golayyel, and Ahmad Alaidy.

In dialogue with affect theory, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis, the book reveals these trials to be a violent and ongoing confrontation with and within modernity. In pointed and witty prose, El-Ariss bridges the gap between Nahda (the so-called Arab project of Enlightenment) and postcolonial and postmodern fiction.

  • Cover
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Note on Translation and Transliteration
  • 1. Introduction: Debating Modernity
  • 2. Fantasy of the Imam
  • 3. Aversion to Civilization
  • 4. Staging the Colonial Encounter
  • 5. Majnun Strikes Back
  • 6. Hacking the Modern
  • 7. Conclusion: Writing the New Political
  • Notes
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography
  • Index
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