Remembering the Future: Arabic Time-Travel Literature

Arabic Language, Literature and Culture, 2018

This paper is aimed to analyse time and space as the prominent themes of modern Arabic science fictionon the example of the novel “Voyage to Tomorrow” by Tawfiqal-Hakim. In this research a combination of two research methods - documentary analysis and literature review - was used. Documentary analysis involves obtaining data from about ten scientific articles and theses. Documentary analysis was used to obtain general data about the subject of the research. Results of the research make it obvious that time travel is one ofthe most contagious ideas in science fiction. In modern society where time is a unit of value and instant gratification is prized, the idea of traveling through time appears more than ever in books, movies, and pop culture. Arabic science fiction writers try to incorporate the latest theories about the nature of the universe to give their stories greater realism. A pioneering figure of modern Arabic science fiction, Tawfiq al-Hakim, is thefocus of attention in the paper because of his evolutionary and panoramic view of history and time in his novel “Voyage to Tomorrow”. Qualitative methods, documentary and literary analyses used in the research allowed the author to come to the conclusion that the ideas of the novel approach nature as transformational, rather than static and unchanging, and time as directional, rather than cyclic. The paper also shows how different traditions were combined in the “Voyage to Tomorrow” reflecting peculiarities of modern Arabic science fiction.

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.

Journal of World Literature, 2018

Trans. of Taha Hussein's essay "Contemplating the Past and Future of Arabic Literature", published 1945.

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A POSTCOLONIAL READING OF SELECTED ARABIC NOVELS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH ... A POSTCOLONIAL READING OF SELECTED ARABIC NOVELS TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH ... Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, in ...

Taha1 Hussein (1889–1973) [Tāha Husayn] was the foremost writer, critic and pedagogue of the Arabic-speaking world in the early twentieth century. A leading Egyptian modernist and reformer, and a staunch supporter of world literature and international cultural cooperation, Hussein embodied both the ideals and the predilections of Arabic liberal modernism and Arab public intellectuals of his time. This essay was published in the first issue of Hussein’s magazine Al-kātib al-misri [The Egyptian Writer] in 1945 to outline the location of Arabic as world literature. Hussein argues that the longevity of Arabic literary history depends on a dual process of renovation and stability. Perhaps his most enduring legacy to modern critical thought, Hussein called to “renovate” literature, that is, to achieve balance between Arab classical history and the free, politically-independent spirit of the modern age, and between local and world cultures. According to Hussein this balance creates world literature. As such, world literature is a natural result of cultural exchange between nations – even if the exchange itself, as in the Islamic empire, the two World Wars or European colonisation, has been prompted by conflict.

A Companion to Global Historical Thought, ed. by P. Duara, V. Murthy, A. Sartori, 2014

S. Boustani, R. El-Enany, Monica Ruocco, Patrizia Zanelli (editors) FICTION AND HISTORY: THE REBIRTH OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL IN ARABIC . IPOCAN, 2022

Among the Algerian intellectuals and writers who write in Arabic, Wasīnī al-Aʿraǧ (Waciny Laredj, b. 1954) stands out as an interesting case study, because although he chose to migrate to France and uses the French language to discuss political and literary issues, he has never ceased to write his novels in Arabic. Since 1992 the main subject of his work has been re-telling Algeria’s history to underline the different cultural contributions which shaped Algerian culture as a polymorphous one (and not a Muslim culture strictu sensu) and how the Algerian identity is embedded in this culture. In this paper I linked one of his first novels, Ḥārisat al-ẓilāl. Dūn Kīšūt fī l-Ǧazāʾir (The female guardian of the shadows. Don Quijote in Algiers, 1996), to a more recent one, al-Bayt al-andalusī (Mémorium) (The Andalusian house, 2010), to highlight how the author perceives the Andalusian legacy in Algeria and elaborates it to analyse present political and social issues. In fact, through the “history” of Murād Basta, of Moorish origins, al-Aʿraǧ discusses the discourse of power throughout five centuries of Algerian history. The Andalusian manor, a metaphor of Algeria, enables the author to present the struggle of civil society against political power and religious fundamentalism.

Routledge Companion to World Literature (2nd Edition), Eds. David Damrosch, Theo D’haen, and Djelal Kadir, 2022