Title: The unmaking of the Arab intellectual : prophecy, exile and the nation /
Authors: Halabi, Zeina G.,
Year: 2017
Subjects: Arabic literature History and criticism.; Motion picture plays, Arabic History and criticism.
Abstract: Zeina G. Halabi examines the unmaking of the intellectual as prophetic figure, national icon, and exile in Arabic literature and film from the 1990s onwards. She comparatively explores how contemporary writers and film directors such as Rabee Jaber, Rawi Hage, Rashid al-Daif, Seba al-Herz and Elia Suleiman have displaced the archetype of the intellectual as it appears in writings by Elias Khoury, Edward Said, Jurji Zaidan and Mahmoud Darwish. In so doing, Halabi identifies and theorises alternative articulations of political commitment, displacement, and loss in the wake of unfulfilled prophecies of emancipation and national liberation. The Unmaking of the Arab Intellectual offers critical tools to understand the evolving relations between aesthetics and politics in the alleged post-political era of Arabic literature and culture. --
Contents: Introduction : in the beginning was the word -- Requiem for the Enlightenment -- Elegy for the intellectual -- The banality of exile -- Ruins of secular nationalism -- The political remains.