Arab Culture and the Novel
Genre, Identity and Agency in Egyptian Fiction
By Muhammad Siddiq
Published July 29th 2010 by Routledge – 232 pages
Published July 29th 2010 by Routledge – 232 pages
This book explores the complex relationship between the novel and identity in modern Arab culture against a backdrop of contemporary Egypt. It uses the example of the Egyptian novel to interrogate the root causes – religious, social, political, and psychological – of the lingering identity crisis that has afflicted Arab culture for at least two centuries.
1. A Genre at War: Literary Form and Historical Agency 2. Tangents of Identity: The Poetics of Space in the Egyptian Novel 3. Divining Identities: Religion and the Egyptian Novel 4. Questionable Subjects: Individuality, Representation, and the Novel