Book Description
This dazzling anthology features the work of seventy-nine outstanding writers from all over the Arab-speaking world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, Syria in the north to Sudan in the south.
Edited by Denys Johnson-Davies, called by Edward Said “the leading Arabic-to-English translator of our time,” this treasury of Arab voices is diverse in styles and concerns, but united by a common language. It spans the full history of modern Arabic literature, from its roots in western cultural influence at the end of the nineteenth century to the present-day flowering of Naguib Mahfouz’s literary sons and daughters. Among the Egyptian writers who laid the foundation for the Arabic literary renaissance are the great Tawfik al-Hakim; the short story pioneer Mahmoud Teymour; and Yusuf Idris, who embraced Egypt’s vibrant spoken vernacular. An excerpt from the Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih’s novel Season of Migration to the North, one of the Arab world’s finest, appears alongside the Libyan writer Ibrahim al-Koni’s tales of the Tuaregs of North Africa, the Iraqi writer Mohamed Khudayir’s masterly story “Clocks Like Horses,” and the work of such women writers as Lebanon’s Hanan al-Shaykh and Morocco’s Leila Abouzeid.
Customer Reviews:
An Incredible Compilation.......2006-12-11
The West has so little access to Arabic literature, and there are few translations available, except for perhaps a handful of writers. So this incredible collection is a much-welcomed -- and much-needed -- addition to my library. If we want to understand, and connect with, the Arab world, getting a glimpse into the culture is an important step, and this terrific collection goes a long way toward helping with that goal.
Sampler containing pieces that are simply too short.......2006-12-03
Rather than getting a true sense of each writer, what one gets is a mere glimpse. Most of the entries are just excerpts. And many of those excerpts are a stingy 3-4 pages long. It's like riding in a car and seeing a brief image as you pass by. The editor should have included fewer writers and given them space enough to have their work truly represented. Further, there is no organization that is obvious to my eye. I settle in too briefly with the prescient and modern vision of the Yemeni writer Abdul- Wali (deceased) then jump to the agitated voice of young Yahya Taher Abdullah (also felled before his time) then jump again through the sharp eye of social commentator Abouzeid and over two wisps from other writers before finding the Arabic Saki (Al Amir). Whew! All that in 23 pages. A whirlwind, for certain, but not what I was hoping for. Perhaps a vol 1 and vol 2 would have allowed space for greater inclusiveness without sacrificing content. This anthology is a great idea, but it needs to be re-thought and re-released.
Book Description
A collection of stories by some writers already known in translation to Western reader--Tewfik el Hakim, Naguib Mahfouz, Youssef Idris--and others less well known outside the Arab world, this book offers a sampling of a literary form which showed a particularly interesting and vigorous development during the two decades after the Second World War.
Customer Reviews:
Recommended If You're Interested in Work from This Period.......2007-03-01
This book was published in Cairo in 1968. It contains 33 short stories by 30 writers, of whom 24 are Egyptian. The stories date from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s, which according to the introduction was the time when the short story was the dominant genre in Arabic literature. Two-thirds of the stories come from the 1960s, and only one's identified as published in the 1940s.
The major Egyptian writers include al-Hakim, Mahmoud Taymour, Hakki, Mahfouz, Idris, Suhayr al-Qalamawi, Quddous, and el-Kharrat. Writers from elsewhere include Zakaria Tamer and Ghada el-Samman from Syria, Ghalib Halassa from Jordan and Samira Azzam from Palestine.
Most of the stories are grounded in realism and concern social problems such as poverty and overpopulation, love of the countryside and problems within it, more personal issues such as the relations between husband and wife and parent and child, or problems in both spheres, such as conflicts between tradition and modernity. Several of the works deal, for example, with the subject of honor killings.
Other stories, which are experimental in style and focus on the "predicament of the individual," isolation and so on, were of less interest. One blended grotesque fantasy and reality in a manner the author claimed was inspired by Czech cartoon films.
I enjoyed this collection for providing some stories from the 1940s and 1950s, a time for which I haven't seen many other anthologies of Arabic short stories in translation. And for works from the 1960s from some of the major Egyptian writers.
Memorable stories included "The Brass Four-Poster" by Hakki, which shows the changes over the years in the lives of a mother and daughter, and the relations between them, by means of a bed bought for the daughter's marriage. "Hanzal and the Policeman" by Mahfouz, in which a jobless drug addict is astounded at receiving understanding and help from the police, instead of their usual behavior. And "Peace with Honour" by Idris, which shows what happens to a beautiful, trusting girl and the people around her when she's accused of improper behavior with a man. This story especially was full of compassion and irony, as in a tale by Chekhov.
In one of the more interesting stories by one of the older writers, in which the Devil's wish to repent is refused by Heaven and worldly religious authorities because virtue has no meaning without sin, it was a mild surprise to find a few slighting, gratuitous references to a certain non-Arabic people.
Book Description
Beginning with the late-nineteenth-century cultural resurgence and continuing through the present day, short stories and novels have given voice to the personal and historical experiences of modern Arabs. This anthology offers a rich and diverse selection of works from more than one hundred and forty prominent Arab writers of fiction. The collection reflects Arab writers' formal inventiveness as well as their intense exploration of various dimensions of modern Arab life, including the impact of modernity, the rise of the oil economy, political authoritarianism, corruption, religion, poverty, and the Palestinian experience in modern times.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi, a renowned scholar of Arabic literature, has included short stories and excerpts from novels from authors in every Arab country. Modern Arabic Fiction contains writings stretching from the pioneering work of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors to the novels of Naguib Mahfouz and the stories of contemporary Arab writers. In addition to familiar names such as Mahfouz, the anthology presents excerpts from writers well known in the Arab world but just beginning to find an audience in the West, including early twentieth century Christian Lebanese writrer Jurji Zaydan, whose historical epics were eye-openers for generations of Arab readers to the achievements of medieval Islamic civilization; Yusuf Idris's complex and brilliant portrait of Egypt's poor; 'Abd al-Rahman Muneef's searing exploration of the ecological and social impact of oil production; Palestinian wrirter Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's sophisticated description of the dilemma's of modern Arab intellectuals; and Jamal al-Ghitani's impressive employment of mythical time and the continuity of the past in the present.
Jayyusi provides biographical information on the writers as well as a substantial and illuminating introduction to the development of modern Arabic fictional genres that considers the central thematic and aesthetic concerns of Arab short story writers and novelists.
Book Description
-- Arab Studies Quarterly
This unique and definitive anthology offers the widest selection ever compiled of modern Palestinian literature. Presented here are translations of poems, stories, and excerpts from novels, as well as works by Palestinian poets who write in English. Also included are personal narratives by Palestinian writers depicting the varied aspects of Palestinian life from the turn of the century to the present. These images capture life in Arab Palestine before 1948 and during the wars of 1948 and 1967, and vivify the ensuing calamities experienced by Palestinians in the diaspora and under occupation.
Many generations of Palestinian writers are represented -those still living in their own land, either in Israel proper or on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and those who write as exiles from the perspective of the Palestinian diaspora.
Biographical sketches introduce the authors, and a comprehensive chronology of modern Palestinian history provides background for some of the events and places referred to in the selections. The introduction provides a concise but thorough critical history of Palestinian literature during the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
A must-have anthology..........2001-12-11
A must-have anthology - to those interested in Palestine and the Arab lands, and to those interested in literature and poetry.
A powerful and moving anthology!
Eye-opening.......2001-09-07
I am an Israeli and an artist. I found this literature to be eye-opening, and very very deep. I appreciate very much the time that was spent by Palestinians to tell their experiences. Perhaps, if we listened more to the artists, peace would could come sooner. Art reflects truth, after all.
The Oppressed tell their story through creativity.......2001-09-03
Excellent! For so many decades, the oppression of Palestinians has gone unnoticed. This anthalogy allows Palestinians to tell their story through profound creativity. It is heart-wrenching and kudos to all the writers for capturing the pain of the Palestinian people during the last 53 years. The Oslo Accords never helped liberate Palestinians, and today's uprising for freedom against Israeli occupation illustrates the desires as represented in these creative works.
If you don't have time to read the full painful historical account of the Palestinian exodus from Palestine during Israel's creation, or want to get a better idea as to why Palestinians have launched the current uprising, I highly recommend this. History isn't always pretty, and undoubtedly, these heart-felt writings will not sit well with pro-Israelis and Zionists. But these writings tell people's personal stories. Nobody can argue with a person's feelings or personal experiences. And nobody can take them away, no matter how inconvenient they may seem to others.
Sad.......2000-08-11
As a Jew and a poet, I find it sad that the work represented here is largely militant and hateful. Except for the magnificent poems of Sharif Elmusa and Naomi Shahib Nye, much of the work refers to Israelis and Jews as locusts, occupiers, enemies, murderers and worse. The existence of Israel, established under the international law by the United Nations in 1948, is seen as "the catastrophe" and the writers almost unanimously hope, obliquely or otherwise, for its destruction. Those who have fought to that end are "martyrs."
To be fair, much of this work was written before the establishment of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in 1993. Yet the introduction to the paperback edition, published in 1994, makes no mention of that process. On the contrary, the editor lauds writers who have worked for "the cause"--including those who refuse to live in states at peace with Israel. Arab writers even now take a hard line. An Israeli poet reports that despite peace with Jordan and Egypt, Arab writers in those countries theaten to ban anyone who contacts their Israeli counterparts. Thus, virtually no dialogue has developed, even among the writing communities.
What can one say, after reading such work and learning such things? One hopes for a true and lasting peace, but if the literature is any evidence, it will be at best years before such a peace is forthcoming. Alyssa A. Lappen
Book Description
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.
Book Description
Designed for the English-speaking student, this reader brings together the Arabic texts of eleven of the best modern Arabic short stories. Each is preceded by an introduction in English, containing biographical information about the author and a critical analysis designed to encourage the student to make a literary response to the story, rather than regarding it as an anthropological curiosity or a linguistic conundrum. Notes explain colloquial and idiomatic words and phrases, which may cause difficulty.
This anthology -- the fruit of several years' teaching experience -- will help to satisfy a growing interest in modern Arabic literature in many parts of the world.
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The Boy Who Set the Fire and Other Stories
Paul Bowles , and
Mohammed Mrabet
Manufacturer: City Lights Publishers
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ASIN: 0872862305 |
Customer Reviews:
Pure Storytelling.......2003-05-23
Paul Bowles tape recorded Mrabet and other Moroccan storytellers back in the 50s, then edited and translated the tales to give to the Western reading public. The result is a large body of Arabic literature that would have pased into the void had it not been for his efforts.
These stories alone would suffice to merit the eternal gratitude of literature and story lovers everywhere. It's impossible to fathom how an illiterate (Mrabet) could smoke a few bowls of kif and effortlessly spin forth such highly structured, intricate yarns "off the top of his head," yet he and several other of his Moroccan compatriots could do just that. Luckily for posterity, a genius such as Bowles was there to act as amaneunsis.
The title story alone is enough to warrant a purchase. It's an unforgettable account of a young Arab boy who falls victim to a band of vicious marauders. The revenge he exacts is truly diabolical.
Readers who enjoy this collection will NO doubt want to investigate Bowles' collection of indiginous, Moroccan, kif-smoking, oral storytellers, HUNDRED CAMELS IN THE COURTYARD. It, too, is unforgettable. Just another piece of the fabric that went into the tapestry of genius that is Paul Bowles.
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Charles, Diana, and Me
Ahmed Fagih
Manufacturer: Kegan Paul
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0710306318 |
Book Description
Ten of Ahmed Fagih's best short stories are included in this memorable collection, providing a reading experience that is both entertaining and socially relevant. Although focusing on contemporary themes such as the conflict between self and society, and the tension between conservative concepts and modern values, Fagih retains his signature style of writing. Always poetic, with a characteristic mixture of illusion and reality, the author brings to western culture stories that have delighted Arabic audiences for years.
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Children of the Waters (Modern Middle Eastern Literature in Translation Series)
Ibtihal Salem
Manufacturer: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
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ASIN: 0292777736 |
Book Description
Ibtihal Salem's writing provides an excellent forum for studying both everyday life in Egypt and current literary experimentation in the Middle East. Her poignant pieces hover between the structure of story-telling, the visuality of vignettes, and the compression of poetry. They both record and evoke a literary ferment going on in Egypt today.
Salem's writing of the last thirty years is lauded for its social messages also. Finding the expression of sexuality necessary to explicate problems of Egyptian identity, Salem often links poverty to gender marginality. Her heroines, however, celebrate the heritages that have shaped them, even as they resist certain aspects of them. Like many writers in Egypt, Salem honors traditional folktales, even as she deals with contemporary problems from class and economic perspectives.
Marilyn Booth, one of the best translators of Arabic fiction working today, has dealt in her introduction to this collection with the unusual experimental form by examining Salem's craft as well as the contextual history surrounding the stories. Since Salem is writing "across genres," Booth helps the reader also by opening each piece with an explanatory comment, often quoting the author, and thus further illuminating Salem's portrayals of lives bounded by Egypt's waters—the Canal, the Nile, and the Mediterranean.
Book Description
The stories in this anthology are the work of a new generation of Palestinian writers who began to appear in the 1960s both inside Palestine and abroad. The writers of the diaspora developed many themes among them, life in the camps and the wandering Palestinian. Those living inside occupied Palestine had to contend with political repression and so generally resorted to symbolism and illusion while focussing on the inner worlds of their characters. Includes work from Liana Badr, Riyad Baidas, Emile Habibi, Farouk Wadi and their forerunners Samira Azzam and Ghassan Kanafani.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, but Was Expecting More.......2006-12-16
The book contains 38 works by 22 writers. It focuses mainly on the generation that came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, and three earlier writers, Emile Habiby, Samira Azzam and Ghassan Kanafani. Most of the stories aren't dated precisely, but the majority appear to come from the 1970s and 1980s, and the rest from the 1960s and early 1990s.
An introduction briefly mentions Palestinian short story writers going back to the 1920s, but dismisses works from the early years as overly didactic and lacking subtlety. Writers who were published in the 1940s or 1950s such as Aref al-Azouni, Najwa Qawar, Asma Touba, Abdulamid Yasin and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra are mentioned, but nothing from them is included.
The pieces in the book are grouped under the themes of paradise lost, exile, refugees living abroad in hostile cities, various kinds of miscommunication, life and death, and dreams of paradise redeemed. The themes are compelling, but for me a number of the works weren't especially striking illustrations of them or utterly memorable stories.
Those that were included a piece by Farouk Wadi ("Black Lines") about a protagonist who lacks identity papers, a job, a lover, a home, and eventually, freedom, except within the span of his imagination, and two by Ahmed Omar Shaheen: "The Tree," which used the changes to a beloved tree, its tying, branding and withering, to symbolize history, and "Four Colors," which contains one of the anthology's few positive visions, that of an established homeland. Another was "Flying Carpet," by Riyad Baidas, involving a conversation between a Palestinian and an Israeli that aims to show how they see differently things like their surroundings, human contact and peace of mind.
A number of the other stories were too brief (1-2 pages) and/or dreamlike and diffuse for me to understand. Many recalled parables by Kafka. Lack of familiarity with cultural or social references and allusions probably made this kind of writing more difficult than usual to grasp.
An example of this type would be a story about a woman who steps outside to pluck leaves from a vine, is stopped by a guard of the "ruling party's headquarters" and asked what she's doing, gives him a recipe for the leaves, and is asked to let him taste the dish. Returning home, she sees a sunken car looming out of torrents of water, thinks drowning is a bad omen and a sign that she shouldn't return, and goes home without looking behind her.
Oppressors, whether "Zionist" or those in cities in the Arab world where some of the works take place, when they appear, are usually at some distance in the background. Dislocation, dream visions and despair are at the fore. It was a surprise that so few stories focused on the loving relations between, say, a couple or parents and children or friends. One that did, "The Man Who Lies a Lot," by Zaki Darwish, shows a father's love for his young daughter ending unintentionally in tragedy, in magic realist style. In another, the budding relationship between two teenagers is broken up when the girl is detained for throwing a Molotov cocktail. In another, the narrator's life has been wrecked by the shooting death of his pregnant wife. Many of the stories contain an isolated protagonist, nearly three-quarters are written in the first person.
In the end, I appreciated this anthology mainly for the pieces named above, several stories by Kanafani, and one by Azzam, whose work I read here for the first time. Readers interested in writing by Palestinian authors are naturally among those who'd find the collection worthwhile. I wondered whether additional writers and short stories in more direct, naturalistic styles were available for inclusion in it to represent the times. And whether earlier writers could've been added without detracting from the themes.
Books:
- The Armour of Contempt (Gaunt's Ghosts)
- The Baroque Narrative of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora: A New World Paradise (Cambridge Studies in Latin American and Iberian Literature)
- The BLOOD AND THE SHROUD: NEW EVIDENCE THAT THE WORLDS MOST SACRED RELIC IS REAL
- The Complete Pinball Book: Collecting the Game and Its History (Schiffer Book for Collectors) (Schiffer Book for Collectors)
- The Cornish Trilogy
- The Cutting Room
- The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable
- The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Heat of the Day
- The Hot Sauce Bible
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