Representations and visions of homeland in modern Arabic literature

Edited by Sebastian Günther and Stephan Milich.

Eleven essays highlight the complexity, diversity, and vitality of literary voices in expressing a broad spectrum of ideas and images centered around the Arab homeland and nation: Longing for Home - Leaving Home - Constructing Home - Affirming Home - Proclaiming Home - Losing Home - Probing the Home - Gendering Home - Grieving Over Home - Remembering Home - Claiming Home. Including essays by Beatrice Gruendler, Nikolay Dyakov, Leslie Tramontini, Stephan Guth, Göran Larsson, Hartmut Fähndrich, Stephan Milich, Hosn Abboud, Samar Attar, Rochelle Davis and Anette Månsson. This book contributes to a deeper understanding of the historical dimensions and literary representations of home and homeland in the modern Arab world on the one hand, and the far-reaching cultural and political impact of these concepts on the other. The thematic spectrum ranges from studies of writings on home and nostalgia, travel accounts, didactic epistles, and prison memoirs, as well as the nahda-literature and the genre of collective autobiographies or “village books”. While some essays focus on the processes of symbolic nation-building, others deal with the literary techniques and poetic devices that modern Arab authors employ in order to deconstruct and question the political discourses on watan and Arab nationalism. This collection of essays is the result of a symposium held in 2011 at the University of Göttingen, Germany. XLIII,241 Seiten, broschiert (Arabistische und islamwissenschaftliche Texte und Studien; Band 20/Olms Verlag 2016)