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Description
This book by Dalya Cohen-Mor explores the issue of the Other in Arab culture and society as mirrored in modern Arabic literature. Drawing on insights from identity studies, cultural studies, women's studies, and analyzing in depth a large corpus of texts from modern Arabic literature, this work provides a vivid account of how otherness is produced, experienced, and contested in Arab society.
The Other in Contemporary Arab Culture and Society: Longing to Belong offers a comparative study of both internal and external Others in Arab society, to use the concept of the Other to shed light on the parameters of Arab identity and self-definition, and to focus on the relationship with the Other to explore the dynamics of Arab culture and society. The selection of literary works includes autobiographical novels, novels, novellas, short stories, and poems by contemporary writers, both male and female, from across the Middle East. The analysis highlights the ways in which literary texts critique, complicate, or modify stereotypical representations of the Other, illustrates the values and orientations of Arab society, and assesses the agency of literature and its power to raise public awareness and shape reality.
Table of Contents
Note on Transliteration
Prologue
Part I: The Enigmatic Other
Chapter 1: Aspects of Otherness: An Overview
Part II: Cultural Encounters: Narratives of Internal Others
Chapter 2: The Nubian (al-nubi): “He Calls Us 'Barbari'”
Chapter 3: The Copt (al-qubti): “I'm the Son of Fear”
Chapter 4: The Bedouin (al-badawi): “Times Had Changed, I Was Forced to Explain … The Bedouin Were Civilized”
Chapter 5: The Migrant Worker (al-'amil al-ajnabi): “They Treat Us as If We Have No Feelings and Don't Understand Anything”
Chapter 6: The Female Gender (al-mar'a): “Men Were the Guardians of Women and ... This Was Just the Way God Designed the World and Intended It to Be”
Chapter 7: The Homosexual (al-mithliyi): “We Were All Colors of the Rainbow”
Chapter 8: The Disabled (al-mu'awwaq): “To My Body … a Tent Peg Crucified in the Wilderness”
Chapter 9: Concluding Remarks for Part II
Part III: Cultural Encounters: Representations of External Others
Chapter 10: The West: Attraction and Repulsion
Chapter 11: The European Other
Chapter 12: The American Other
Chapter 13: The Jews: The Dhimmi Other versus the Israeli/Zionist Other
Chapter 14: Concluding Remarks for Part III
Part IV: Romantic Liaisons: When the Other Is the Beloved
Chapter 15: Social Taboo and Muslim Law
Chapter 16: Arab Muslim-Arab Christian Romance
Chapter 17: Arab-Western Romance
Chapter 18: Arab-Jewish Romance
Chapter 19: Arab-Black Romance
Chapter 20: Concluding Remarks for Part IV
Part V: Shifting Boundaries: The Ever-Evolving Other
Chapter 21: Does Literature Matter?
Chapter 22: Identity Politics and the Other
Chapter 23: The Global Village and the Other
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Product details
| Published | 05 Feb 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 272 |
| ISBN | 9798765164327 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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