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In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Arabic-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire saw a crucial change in attitudes towards sexuality. Notions of 'respectability', 'propriety' and 'sexual morality' were being transformed in literary and cultural discourses, a shift that was related to the gradual rise in anti-Ottoman Arab nationalism. However, contemporary Orientalists such as Sir Richard Burton and T.E. Lawrence were oblivious to certain aspects of this process of cultural reconfiguration. While accounts of male-love poetry (ghazal al-mudhakkar) were being gradually expurgated from the Arab literary heritage, elaborate narratives of Oriental homoerotic desire distinctively characteris...
"In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Arab-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire saw crucial changes in attitudes towards sexuality. However, contemporary Orientalists such as Sir Richard Burton and T.E. Lawrence were oblivious to certain aspects of these shifts. By comparing their autobiographical accounts of the Arab Orient with contemporary Arabic literature, Feras Alkabani exposes this critical disparity in cross-cultural portrayals of sexual morality and homoerotic desire. His detailed comparative study reveals the significance of homoerotic desire within Orientalist and Arab literary discourses"--
In the decades after World War II, the United Nations established a global refugee regime that became central to the lives of displaced people around the world. This regime has exerted particular authority over Palestinian refugees, who are served by a specialized UN body, the Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Formed shortly after the 1948 war, UNRWA continues to provide quasi-state services such as education and health care to Palestinian refugee communities in the Middle East today. This book is a groundbreaking international history of Palestinian refugee politics. Anne Irfan traces the history and politics of UNRWA’s interactions with Palestinian communities, particularly in the refugee...
This is the fantastical, yet real, story of the merchants of Bethlehem, the young men who traveled to every corner of the globe in the nineteenth century. These men set off on the backs of donkeys with suitcases full of crosses and rosaries, to return via steamship with suitcases stuffed with French francs, Philippine pesos, or Salvadoran colones. They returned with news of mysterious lands and strange inventions—clocks, trains, and other devices that both befuddled and bewitched the Bethlehemites. With newfound wealth, these merchants built shimmering pink mansions that transformed Bethlehem from a rural village into Palestine's wealthiest and most cosmopolitan town. At the center of thes...
Egyptians are known among the Arabs as awlād al-nukta, Sons of the Jokes, for their ability to laugh in face of adversity. This creative weapon has been directed against socio-political targets both in times of oppression and popular upheaval, such as the 2011 Tahrir Revolution. This book looks at the literary expression of Egyptian humour in the novels of Muḥammad Mustajāb, Khayrī Shalabī, and Ḥamdī Abū Julayyil, three writers who revive the comic tradition to innovate the language of contemporary fiction. Their modern tricksters, wise fools, and antiheroes play with the stereotypical traits attached to the ordinary Egyptians, while laughing at the universal contradictions of life...
Why do we read, and have we always read in the same way? Reading: A cultural practice uses a rich variety of literary and visual sources to explore how reading has changed, and continues to change, in response to new technologies and shifting social pressures. Drawing on medieval illustrations, classic fiction, the art and literature of the Bloomsbury Group, and contemporary e-culture, the book shows that there is no single, unchanging thing called ‘reading’—instead, it is something that mutates over time. Throughout history, ways of reading, and theories of reading, have been shaped by religious and educational institutions. This continues to be true, but current approaches to reading are also conditioned by debates over digital culture and social media use. Reading: A cultural practice re-frames these contemporary preoccupations by offering a long view on how our notions of books and reading alter according to social and historical context.
A climate of Islamophobia allows anxieties about Muslim men living in and migrating to Britain to endure. British Muslims men are often profiled in highly negative terms or regarded with suspicion owing to their perceived religious and cultural heritage. But novels and films by British migrant and diaspora writers and filmmakers powerfully contest these stereotypes, and explore the rich diversity of Muslim masculinities in Britain. This book is the first critical study to engage with British Muslim masculinities in this literary and cinematic output from the perspective of masculinity studies. Through close analysis of work by Monica Ali, Nadeem Aslam, Guy Gunaratne, Sally El Hosaini, Hanif ...
Building on a growing body of literature, this Handbook provides an up-to-date and authoritative survey of Arab cinema. The collection includes contributions from academics and filmmakers from across the Arab region, Europe, and North America, and fills a gap in media studies by examining the entire Arab region, rather than focusing on one country or theme. The Handbook also sheds light on the heterogeneity of Arab filmmaking not only within the Arab region, but also globally, within diasporic communities. It is split into six parts: Part 1 provides an overview of each sub-region in the Arab world, including a chapter on Arab animation films. Parts 2, 3, and 4 address topical themes, encompassing the representation of gender, religion, and identity politics in Arab cinema. Part 5 discusses the theme of diaspora and Part 6 concludes the volume with reflective essays penned by selected diasporic filmmakers. This book is an essential reference for Arab media and cinema scholars, students, and professional filmmakers. With case studies from across the Arab region, it's also a valuable resource for anyone interested in film and media, global cinema, and the Middle East generally.
This book stems from a simple yet disturbing observation: contemporary British fiction is full of children killing or being killed. Thoughtfully considering novels and films, alongside actual murder cases and moral panics, Dominic Dean develops this insight into a complex account of British cultural history, from the Thatcher to Brexit eras. Killing Children in British Fiction argues that the figure of the child provides means for negotiating, and hence for understanding, recent crises in Britain and their intersections with broader transnational conflicts. The book explores works from major British authors such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Doris Lessing, Sarah Waters, Alan Hollinghurst, a...
Il presente volume inaugura un’iniziativa editoriale volta a diffondere, analogamente a un progetto precedente cui si ricollega, i risultati delle ricerche di giovani studiosi formatisi nell’ambito del Dottorato in Civiltà dell’Asia e dell’Africa, presso l’Università di Roma Sapienza. I saggi di questa miscellanea, i cui autori appartengono ai cicli 32°-33°-34°, spaziano dalla letteratura araba, hindi e giapponese alla linguistica araba e cinese, fino alla contemporaneità della RPC. Le tematiche trattate sono espressione di alcune delle principali specializzazioni del Dottorato in questione, relativamente alle diverse epoche storiche e alle varie aree linguistiche e culturali del Maghreb, del Medio Oriente, del Subcontinente indiano e dell’Asia Orientale. Basandosi su materiali in lingua originale, per i campi d’indagine prescelti i contributi offrono analisi accurate e nuovi spunti interpretativi.