Zeina G. Halabi – författare

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arabic Literature redefines how we engage with Arabic literary traditions in a global context. This comprehensive and accessible companion situates modern Arabic literature at the forefront of debates about time, language, geography, and media. Through incisive case studies and close readings, leading scholars explore the dynamic intersections of Arabic literature with postcolonial, feminist, and ecological thought, as well as its transnational and translational dimensions. From the Nahda to the Anthropocene, from fuṣḥā to ʿāmmiyya, and from the Maghrib to the Arab diaspora, the companion maps the evolving contours of Arabic literary production. Far from being peripheral, Arabic literature emerges as a vital force in reimagining the dynamics of comparative and world literary studies. This companion is an essential resource for scholars, students, and readers seeking to understand the transformative power of modern Arabic literature.

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arabic Literature redefines how we engage with Arabic literary traditions in a global context. This comprehensive and accessible companion situates modern Arabic literature at the forefront of debates about time, language, geography, and media. Through incisive case studies and close readings, leading scholars explore the dynamic intersections of Arabic literature with postcolonial, feminist, and ecological thought, as well as its transnational and translational dimensions. From the Nahda to the Anthropocene, from fuṣḥā to ʿāmmiyya, and from the Maghrib to the Arab diaspora, the companion maps the evolving contours of Arabic literary production. Far from being peripheral, Arabic literature emerges as a vital force in reimagining the dynamics of comparative and world literary studies. This companion is an essential resource for scholars, students, and readers seeking to understand the transformative power of modern Arabic literature.

In this book Zeina G. Halabi examines the figure of the intellectual as prophet, national icon, and exile in contemporary Arabic literature and film. Staging a comparative dialogue with writers and critics such as Elias Khoury, Edward Said, Jurji Zaidan, and Mahmoud Darwish, Halabi focuses on new articulations of loss, displacement, and memory in works by Rabee Jaber, Elia Suleiman, Rawi Hage, Rashid al-Daif, and Seba al-Herz. She argues that the ambivalence and disillusionment with the role of the intellectual in contemporary representations operate as a productive reclaiming of the ‘political’ in an allegedly apolitical context. The Unmaking of the Arab Intellectual offers the critical tools to understand the evolving relations between the intellectual and power, and the author and the text in the hitherto uncharted contemporary era.