Cairo University has been crucially important in shaping the national life of modern Egypt. In this history, Professor Reid explains the university's part in the national quest for independence from Britain, in the perennial tension between secular and religious world-views, and in the push for a more egalitarian society.
The Oxford Handbook of Arab Novelistic Traditions is the most comprehensive treatment of the subject to date. In scope, the book encompasses the genesis of the Arabic novel in the second half of the nineteenth century and its development to the present in every Arabic-speaking country and in Arab immigrant destinations on six continents. Editor Waïl S. Hassan and his contributors describe a novelistic phenomenon which has pre-modern roots, stretching centuries back within the Arabic cultural tradition, and branching outward geographically and linguistically to every Arab country and to Arab writing in many languages around the world. The first of three innovative dimensions of this Handbook consists of examining the ways in which the Arabic novel emerged out of a syncretic merger between Arabic and European forms and techniques, rather than being a simple importation of the latter and rejection of the former, as early critics of the Arabic novel claimed. The second involves mapping the novel geographically as it took root in every Arab country, developing into often distinct though overlapping and interconnected local traditions. Finally, the Handbook concerns the multilingual character of the novel in the Arab world and by Arab immigrants and their descendants around the world, both in Arabic and in at least a dozen other languages. The Oxford Handbook of Arab Novelistic Traditions reflects the current status of research in the broad field of Arab novelistic traditions and signals toward new directions of inquiry.
This open access book offers innovative and wide-ranging responses to the continuously flourishing literary phenomenon of autofiction. The book shows the insights that are gained in the shift from the genre descriptor to the adjective, and from a broad application of “the autofictional” as a theoretical lens and aesthetic strategy. In three sections on “Approaches,” “Affordances,” and “Forms,” the volume proposes new theoretical approaches for the study of autofiction and the autofictional, offers fresh perspectives on many of the prominent authors in the discussion, draws them into a dialogue with autofictional practice from across the globe, and brings into view texts, forms, and media that have not traditionally been considered for their autofictional dimensions. The book, in sum, expands the parameters of research on autofiction to date to allow new voices and viewpoints to emerge.
Individually and collectively, these essays establish a new direction for current scholarly thinking about the writing and reading of literature and their relationship with ideas of authority, self-reliance, truth, originality, the valid and the real, and the genuine and inauthentic. Authors discussed include William Cowper, Robert Southey, Leigh Hunt, William Wordsworth, P. B. Shelley, Lord Byron, John Ruskin, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry David Thoreau and Joseph Conrad.
The present work is the result of the First International Chariot Conference, jointly organised by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the American University in Cairo (AUC) (30 November to 2 December 2012). The intention of the conference was to make a broad assessment of the current state of knowledge about chariots in Egypt and the Near East, and to provide a forum for discussion. A wide variety of papers are included, ranging from overviews to more detailed studies focusing on a specific topic. These include philology, iconography, archaeology, engineering, history, and conservation. The book is of interest to scholars as well as anyone with an interest in ancient technology, transportation, or warfare.
The Arabic and English languages have developed along separate lines over the centuries. Thus, it is no surprise that even apart from purely cultural elements, there are distinctive characteristics of the two languages that pose particular problems to native speakers of one language attempting to learn the other. The scholarly papers of Diversity in Language: Contrastive Studies in Arabic and English Theoretical and Applied Linguistics offer new views on the contrasts between Arabic and English and on contemporary theoretical and applied linguistics. Contributors focus on an array of elusive features that make the Arabic language especially difficult for English speakers to understand fully and intuitively. Comparative studies of English and Arabic, including research on the acquisition of Arabic or English as a second language, underscore the concept of diversity. Contributors to Diversity in Language also investigate stylistics, a major source of diversity between the two languages. Practical observations and suggestions may help teachers of Arabic or English as a second language enable students to better understand their second language and become more persuasive and effective in using it. The papers assembled here will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of scholars and students of Arabic, contrastive rhetoric, and linguistics. Teachers of English as a foreign language, even if their students are not primarily from an Arabic-speaking background, can likewise benefit from the insights made in these contrastive studies. Contributors: Jehan Allam, El-Said Badawi, Huda M. M. Ghali, Mona Kamel Hassan, Nancy G. Hottel-Burkhart, Christopher Horger, Salwa Kamel, Abdel-Hakeem Kasem, Nagwa Kassabgy, Mohammad Al-Khawalda, Nabila El-Taher Makhlouf, Maha El-Seidi, Cynthia May Sheikholeslami, Devin Stewart, Loubna A. Youssef.
