Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East, 1850–1970

Description

Enormous political and social changes brought about by modernization have naturally found expression in the literatures of the Near and Middle East. The contributors to this book, first published in 1991, trace the development of modern literary sensibility, in Turkish, Arabic, Persian and modern Hebrew. It is argued that the period can be divided into three broad phases - the age of translation after 1850, when formerly self-sufficient elites throughout the region began to reach out to the West for new ideas and stylistic models; the surge of romantic nationalism after the First World War and the decline of imperialism; and the modern period after 1950, a time of growing self-awareness and self-definition among writers against an often violent background of inter- and intra-state conflict. The product of different nations, races and traditions, there are nevertheless constant themes in the literatures of this period - the colonial heritage, nationalism, justice, poverty and wealth, migration from country to city, confrontation between self and other, and between East and West, collapse and rebirth. Cover......Page 1 Half Title......Page 2 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Original Title......Page 6 Original Copyright......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 Foreword......Page 10 PART I THE AGE OF TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION, 1850-1914......Page 12 1 Modernization and literature in the Near and Middle East 1850-1914......Page 14 2 Turkey......Page 28 3 The Arab world......Page 44 4 Iran......Page 56 5 Modern Hebrew......Page 74 PART II FROM ROMANTIC NATIONALISM TO SOCIAL CRITICISM, 1914-1950......Page 88 6 The political setting 1914-1950......Page 90 7 Turkey......Page 101 8 The Arab world......Page 115 9 Modern Hebrew......Page 127 10 Iran......Page 141 PART III THE AGE OF IDEOLOGY AND POLARIZATION SINCE 1950......Page 170 11 The age of ideology and polarization......Page 172 12 Turkey......Page 181 13 The Mashriq......Page 191 14 The Maghrib......Page 204 15 Israel......Page 224 Bibliography......Page 237 Index......Page 247