Modern Arabic Literature

This volume of the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature provides an authoritative, comprehensive critical survey of creative writing in Arabic from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. With the spread of secular education, printing and journalism, a new reading public emerged. Against the background of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of nationalism, and the conflict between Islam and increasing Westernization, the traditional conception of literature as a display of verbal skill was replaced by the view that literature should reflect and indeed change social and political reality. A significant translation movement resulted in the borrowing of Western ideas and literary forms: the novel, the short story and drama. This book examines the attempts made by Arab men and women to adapt the new imported forms as well as the indigenous literary tradition to meet the requirements of the modern world. Quoted material is given in English translation, and there is an extensive bibliography.

• All you need to know about modern Arabic literature - no comparable volume exists in English • Eleven well-known contributors (including several women), from the international circuit • Women’s writing, drama, criticism, poetry, the novel and the short story are all here; quotations are all in English; there is a map, a chronological table and a good bibliography of primary and secondary material

Editorial note; Chronological table of events; Map of the Arab world; 1. Introduction: I. The background M. M. Badawi; II. Translations and adaptations 1834–1914 Pierre Cachia; 2. The Neo-classical Arabic poets S. Somekh; 3. The Romantic poets R. C. Ostle; 4. Modernist poetry in Arabic Salma Khadra Jayyusi; 5. The beginnings of the Arabic novel Roger Allen; 6.The mature Arabic novel outside Egypt Roger Allen; 7. The Egyptian novel from Zaynab to 1980 Hilary Kilpatrick; 8. The modern Arabic short story Sabry Hafez; 9. Arabic drama: early developments M. M. Badawi; 10. Arabic drama since the thirties Ali Al-Ra’i; 11. The prose stylists Pierre Cachia; 12. The critics Pierre Cachia; 13. Arab women writers Miriam Cooke; 14. Poetry in the vernacular Marilyn Booth; Bibliography; Index.