Love & Sexuality In Modern Arabic Literature »

In segregated, conservative societies with a repressive attitude to women, writings on the theme of love and sexuality are of particular interest. Among the many studies on modern Arabic literature, this book is the first major treatment of what has generally been a taboo subject.

The scope covers the entire history of modern Arabic literature--poetry, the novel and the short story--from the late nineteenth century to the end of the 1980s. Examples are drawn from countries as diverse as Algeria and Kuwait. Although the main accent is on the prose of Egypt and the countries of the Mashreq, North African literature is also included.

Topics range from 'erotic awareness in the early Egyptian short story' to 'death and desire in Iraqi war literature', from 'fathers and husbands as tyrants and victims' to 'the foreign woman in the North African novel'.

The writers whose works are analysed include Tawfiq al-Hakim, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Adonis, Layla Ba'albakki, Najib Mahfouz, Edwar al-Kharrat, Layla al-'Uthman and Nizar Qabbani.

Each of the nineteen contributors to the book is a specialist in his or her field of modern Arabic literature.

List of Contributors

Introduction: On Love and Sexuality in Modem Arabic Literature, Hilary Kilpatrick
1. Love and the Birth of Modem Arabic Literature, Boutros Hallaq
2. The Figure of the Lover in Popular Arabic Drama of the Early Twentieth Century, Rosella Dorigo Ceccato
3. The Romantic Imagination and the Female Ideal, Robin Ostle
4. Love and Beyond in Mahjar Literature, Cornelis Nijland
5. The Four Ages of Husayn Tawfiq: Love and Sexuality in the Novels of Tawfiq al-Hakim, Paul Starkey
6. Erotic Awareness in the Early Egyptian Short Story, Ed de Moor
7. The Arabic Short Story and the Status of Women, Roger Allen
8. Love and the Mechanisms of Power; Kamal 'Abd al-Jawwad and Sa'i al-Juhayni, Richard van Leeuwen
9. Fathers and Husbands: Tyrants and Victims in, son- biographical and Semi-Autobiographical Works from the Arab World, Hartmut Fahndrich
10. The Foreign Woman in the Francophone North African Novel, Susanne Enderwitz
II. The Function of Sexual Passages in some Egyptian of the 1980s, Stephan Guth
12. Distant Echoes of Love in the Narrative Work of Fu'ad al-Tikirli, Wiebke Waither
13. Sexuality in Jabri's Novel, The Search for Walid Masud, Mattityahu Peled
14. Women's Narrative in Modern Arabic Literature: A Typology, Sabry Hafez
15. The Development of Women's Political Consciousness the Short Stories of the Kuwaiti Author Layli al-'Uthman, Angelika Rahmer
16. Death and Desire in Iraqi War Literature, Miriam Cooke
17. Nizar Qabbani's Autobiography: Images of Sexuality Death and Poetry, StefanWild
18. Love and the Body in Modern Arabic Poetry, As 'ad E. Khairallah
Notes
Index