Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This is an in-depth, original survey of religion in the modern Arabic novel. Tracing the relationship from the genesis of the form in the early twentieth century to present, Phillips provides a thematic exploration of the push and pull between religion and secularism as it played out on the pages of the Egyptian novel.
Synopsis
Charts the struggle between religious and secular discourse in the Egyptian novel
This is an in-depth, original survey of religion in the modern Arabic novel. Tracing the relationship from the genesis of the form in the early 20th century to present, Phillips provides a thematic exploration of the push and pull between religion and secularism as it played out on the pages of the Egyptian novel. Through close readings of representative texts, the book reveals the manifold ways in which Islam, Christianity, Sufism, myth, ritual and intertext have engaged in modern Arabic literature and culture more broadly.
Key Features
- Detailed literary analyses of religious themes in the 18 Egyptian novels discussed, drawing on a range of critical theories
- First close study of the Coptic theme in the Arabic novel
- Includes close readings of key works, such as the Mahfouz's trilogy, as well as important but overlooked works, such Mahfouz's Hikayat Haratna and 'Asda al-Sirat al-Dhatiyya and 'Abd al-Hakim Qasim's Al-Mahdi and Turaf Akhbar al-Akhira
- Scholarly but accessible, this research is significant for postcolonial studies as well as Arabic literary studies