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For Better, For Worse: The Marriage Crisis That Made Modern Egypt, 1898-1936
Hanan Kholoussy
For many Egyptians in the early twentieth century, the biggest national problem was not British domination or the Great Depression but a "marriage crisis" heralded in the press as a devastating rise in the number of middle-class men refraining from marriage. Voicing anxieties over a presumed increase in bachelorhood, Egyptians also used the failings of Egyptian marriage to criticize British rule, unemployment, the disintegration of female seclusion, the influx of women into schools, middle-class materialism, and Islamic laws they deemed incompatible with modernity. For Better, For Worse explores how marriage became the lens through which Egyptians critiqued larger socioeconomic and political concerns. Delving into the vastly different portrayals and practices of marriage in both the press and the Islamic court records, this innovative look at how Egyptians understood marital and civil rights and duties during the early twentieth century offers fresh insights into ongoing debates about nationalism, colonialism, gender, and the family
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The Experience of Protest: Masculinity and Agency Among Sudanese Refugees in Cairo
Martin Timothy Rowe
In the autumn of 2005, a group of young male Sudanese refugees organized a protest against the policies of the UNHCR in Cairo. Using the protest as a vehicle for exploring the difficulties encountered by young Sudanese men, and their motivations for initiating or joining the protest, this study examines the ways in which pursuit of personal and collective agency intersect with ideals of masculine respectability and attainment.
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Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics
Graham Harman
Prince of Networks is the first treatment of Bruno Latour specifically as a philosopher. It has been eagerly awaited by readers of both Latour and Harman since their public discussion at the London School of Economics in February 2008.
Part One covers four key works that display Latour’s underrated contributions to metaphysics: Irreductions, Science in Action, We Have Never Been Modern, and Pandora’s Hope. Harman contends that Latour is one of the central figures of contemporary philosophy, with a highly original ontology centered in four key concepts: actants, irreduction, translation, and alliance.
In Part Two, Harman summarizes Latour’s most important philosophical insights, including his status as the first “secular occasionalist.” The problem of translation between entities is no longer solved by the fiat of God (Malebranche) or habit (Hume), but by local mediators. Working from his own “object-oriented” perspective, Harman also criticizes the Latourian focus on the relational character of actors at the expense of their cryptic autonomous reality.
This book forms a remarkable interface between Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and the Speculative Realism of Harman and his confederates. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the emergence of new trends in the humanities following the long postmodernist interval.
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Alif 28: Artistic Adaptations: Approaches and Positions
Ferial J. Ghazoul Professor
This issue of Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics addresses literary and artistic adaptations comprehensively. It offers articles on adaptations and appropriations of textual and visual material, focusing on adapting works from one genre to another, from one discourse to another, and from one medium to another. Transformation, modification, and ‘writing back’ in the process of adaptation are analyzed and contextualized. The volume covers adaptation of, among other things, novels into films, sacred texts into literary works, rituals into installation art, historical documents into narrative texts, art objects into poetic discourse, folk legends into dramatic works, ideological positions into fables, erotic verses into Sufi lessons, and e-mails and personal diaries into performances. The contributors are from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Between them they cover postcolonial adaptations, gendered appropriations, and literary rewriting of the past, as well as theoretical and esthetic dimensions of such artistic adaptations. Examples are given from Egyptian, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Pakistani, American, British, Andalusian, and sub-Saharan African works. There are also translations related to the topic of adaptation, and testimonies by writers who have adapted works across genres.
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Arab Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide, 1873–1999
Ferial J. Ghazoul Professor
Arab women’s writing in the modern age began with ‘A’isha al-Taymuriya, Warda al-Yaziji, Zaynab Fawwaz, and other nineteenth-century pioneers in Egypt and the Levant. This unique study―first published in Arabic in 2004―looks at the work of those pioneers and then traces the development of Arab women’s literature through the end of the twentieth century, and also includes a meticulously researched, comprehensive bibliography of writing by Arab women. In the first section, in nine essays that cover the Arab Middle East from Morocco to Iraq and Syria to Yemen, critics and writers from the Arab world examine the origin and evolution of women’s writing in each country in the region, addressing fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiographical writing. The second part of the volume contains bibliographical entries for over 1,200 Arab women writers from the last third of the nineteenth century through 1999. Each entry contains a short biography and a bibliography of each author’s published works. This section also includes Arab women’s writing in French and English, as well as a bibliography of works translated into English. With its broad scope and extensive research, this book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in Arabic literature, women’s studies, or comparative literature. Contributors: Emad Abu Ghazi, Radwa Ashour, Mohammed Berrada, Ferial J. Ghazoul, Subhi Hadidi, Haydar Ibrahim, Yumna al-‘Id, Su‘ad al-Mani‘, Iman al-Qadi, Amina Rachid, Huda al-Sadda, Hatim al-Sakr.
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The Uncultured Wars: Arabs, Muslims, and the Poverty of Liberal Thought
Steven Salaita
The Uncultured Wars is a powerful indictment of dominant American liberal-left discourse. Through twelve stylish essays Steven Salaita returns again and again to his core themes of anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia and the inadequacy of critical thought amongst the 'chattering classes', showing how racism continues to exist in the places where we would least expect it. By looking at topics as diverse as 'Is Jackass Justifiable?', 'Open Mindedness on Independence Day' and 'Ambition, Terrorism and Empathy', Salaita explores why Arabs are marginalized, and who seeks to benefit from this. He goes on to make the case that Arabs and Muslims urgently need to be included in the conversations that people have about American geopolitics. Part of a long tradition of politically engaged writing, and a trailblazer in the emerging genre of Arab-American writing, this book is eminently readable and relevant to our times.
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Child Protection Policies in Egypt: A Rights-Based Approach
Adel Azer, Sohair Mehanna, Mulki al-Sharmani, and Essam Ali
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Alif 27: Childhood: creativity and representation
Ferial J. Ghazoul Professor
This issue of Alif is published on the centennial anniversary of the founding the first Casa dei Bambini, a progressive educational institution for children, which seeks an alternative mode in bringing them up and nurturing their independence. An extract from the writings of the pedagogue of this innovative method, Maria Montessori, is here translated into Arabic for the first time. This collection covers the universe of children through interviews, photo-essays, testimonies, and articles in psychology, philosophy, law, music, fiction, media, poetry, and drama, addressing varied aspects of childhood: from Shakespeare for children to puppet theater in Egypt; from plays for dispossessed camp children to children enlisted in militias; from the affluent and leisurely childhood of Virginia Woolf to the wonders of the early years of a poet like Muhammad Afifi Matar. Essays also explore heroism and ethical values in children’s literature, as well as musical adaptations of children’s literature and the art and craft of making books for children. Alif Volume 27 Contributors: Abdelfattah Abusrour, Saeed Alwakeel, Nasseif Azmy, Mia Carter, Sharif S. Elmusa, Adib Fattal, Stephannie S. Gearhart, Ferial J. Ghazoul, Amanie Fawzi Habashi, Gala El Hadidi, Thomas Hartwell, Sayyid Hegab, Nadia El Kholy, Mohieddin al-Labbad, Muhammad Afifi Matar, Tanya M. Monforte, Maria Montessori, Yasmine Motawy, Naomi Shihab Nye, Michal Oklot, Mounira Soliman, Wiam El-Tamami, Matthew Whoolery.
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Edward Said and Critical Decolonization
Ferial J. Ghazoul Professor
This book is dedicated to Edward Said (1935–2003), a major literary and cultural critic, who has been instrumental in promoting decolonization through his analytical and critical writing. Scholarly articles tackle various aspects of Said’s writing on fiction, criticism, politics, and music, and the volume includes an extensive bibliography of Edward Said.
Edward Said and Critical Decolonization strives to cover the multifaceted career of Said, with emphasis on his critical contribution to decolonization and resistance to hegemony. There are moving testimonies by friends and relatives, students and colleagues, which throw light on his personality. An article by Said himself on the idea of the university is published here for the first time. The volume also includes articles exploring in depth Said’s political, critical, and aesthetic positions―including his views on intellectuals and secular criticism, on traveling theory, and humanism. And Said’s thought is explored in relation to other major thinkers such as Freud and Foucault.
Contributors: Fadwa Abdel Rahman, Richard Armstrong, Mostafa Bayoumi, Terry Eagleton, Rokus de Groot, Stathis Gourgouris, Hoda Guindi, Ananya Kabir, Lamis El Nakkash, Daisuke Nishihara, Rubén Chuaqui, Yasmine Ramadan, Andrew Rubin, Edward Said, Najla Said, Yumna Siddiqi, David Sweet, Michael Wood, and Youssef Yacoubi. -
Anti-Arab Racism in the USA: Where It Comes From and What It Means For Politics Today
Steven Salaita
A sobering analysis of anti-Arab racism, from neo-conservative to liberal, rooted in America's settler colonial past and seeping into every corner of our lives. Steven Salaita takes the reader into the crisis of Arab-American communities in the wake of 9/11. Written with passion, this lucid account of the dangers of American imperialism paints a dark picture of the agenda of the Bush administration not only in the Arab world but also for people of color at home."" Miriam Cooke, Professor, Duke University ""An impassioned and deeply compelling look at the origins, evolution, manifestations and implications of anti-Arab racism today. ... A tour-de-force."" Lisa Suhair Majaj, co-editor, Etel Adnan: Critical Reflections on the Arab-American Writer and Artist and Intersections: Gender, Nation, and Community in Arab Women's Novels ""Salaita dives head-first into the heart of racism in America and uses his personal experiences to help readers understand the mechanics of racism as it applies to Arabs, Muslims and people who look Middle Eastern in the post-Sept. 11 world."" Ray Hanania, journalist and filmmaker, author of I'm Glad I Look Like a Terrorist: Growing up Arab in America and Arabs of Chicagoland ""A highly recommended read, not only for students of Middle East history, but for the average American who wants to know how we have become so intimately and yet so bitterly entwined with the people of the Middle East. ... Salaita has thoughtfully articulated a very regretful era of unabashed racism in American history.
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The Holy Land in Transit: Colonialism and the Quest for Canaan
Steven Salaita
Steven Salaita’s ambitious and thought-provoking work compares the dynamics of settler colonialism in the United States related to Native Americans with the circumstances in Israel related to the Palestinians, revealing the way in which politics influences literary production. The author’s original approach is based not on similarities between the two disparate settler regions but rather on similarities between the rhetoric employed by early colonialists in North America and that employed by Zionist immigrants in Palestine. Meticulously examining histories, theories, and literary depictions of colonialism and its interethnic dialects, Salaita identifies the commonalities in the myths employed by both groups as well as the “counter-discourse” cultivated in the literature of resistance by native peoples. He complements his analysis with personal observations of Palestinians in Lebanese refuge camps, where he encountered a sympathetic perception of American Indians. The Holy Land in Transit presents one of the first intercommunal studies to assess the ways in which indigenous authors react to analogous colonial dynamics. With great perception and energy the author offers a fresh contribution to an emerging frame of reference for historical, political, literary, and cultural investigation.
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Pioneering Feminist Anthropology in Egypt: Selected Writings from Cynthis Nelson
Martina Rieker, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Judith E. Tucker
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Alif 24: Archaeology of literature: tracing the old in the new
Ferial J. Ghazoul Professor
This issue of Alif investigates the different strata constituting texts, and the presence of older material (myths, classics, hymns, rituals, romance, philosophical fragments, etc.) as subtexts in literature. Articles explore the processes and modalities of such inclusions in a given work or the corpus of an author. The issue also includes critical essays on the nature of continuity and correspondence in plots, characters, and styles as well as redeployment of older motifs in modern and postmodern works. Contributors: English section: Walid Bitar, Leslie Croxford, Ananya Kabir, Rondo Keele, Steven Nimis, John Rodenbeck, Edward Said, Doris Shoukri, Mounira Soliman, Steffen Stelzer. Arabic section: Mohammed ‘Ajina, Mohammed Birairi, Ayman Al-Desouky, Hasab al-Sheikh Ja‘far, Scheherazade Hassan, Sami Mahdi, Samia Mehrez, Mai Muzaffar/Rafa Nasiri, Lamis Al-Nakkash/Doris Shoukri, Nagwa Sha‘ban.
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Upper Egypt: Identity and Change
Nicholas S. Hopkins and Reem Saad
Upper Egypt (the Sa’id) is often portrayed as a source of disruption and unpredictability in the broader Egyptian system. Upper Egypt: Identity and Change corrects that image by laying out the order in the meaningful life of Upper Egyptians. That order is based on a strong sense of regional identity including also religious and family identity, and on the political, economic, religious, and family structures that provide the context for action by the people of this region.
This timely collection of 14 contributions by anthropologists, historians, and others deals with such issues as the implications of a Sa’idi identity, the relationship between religion and society, the expanding universe from family to community to region and beyond to the world, and the place of villages, regions, and tribes in the regional structure. All of this is put within a context of change due to the effect of capitalism, the pressure from a national bureaucracy and elite, and the evolving notions of religious and regional identity.
The book is aimed at scholars of social dynamics in the Middle East, including specialists in development, and at all those who are looking for a fresh approach to this marginalized area. -
Alif 23: Literature and the Sacred
Ferial J. Ghazoul Professor
Studies in this collection treat varied aspects of the relationship between literary discourses and ideas of the sacred in different cultures and epochs. Contributions by established and emerging scholars from the Arab world, South Asia, Europe, and North America examine issues such as the treatment of the sacred in literary texts and traditions, the literary dimensions of sacred texts, the impact of the sacred on literary imagination, the role of the literary in sacred experience, and the contestations between the respective projects of literature and the sacred over the constitution of cultural and social norms. Alif vol. 23 Contributors: English and French sections: Nasr Abu Zaid, Karen Campbell, Angelica DeAngelis, Markus Dressler, Michael Frishkopf, Scott Kugle, Heba Machhour, Olivier Sécardin, Marla Segol. Arabic section: Farid Abu Si’da, Boutros Hallaq, Ahmed Taher Hassanein, Anwar Ibrahim, Richard Jacquemond, Salah Kamel, Ali Mabrook, Sa’id Tawfiq.
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