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" Writing Amrīkā: Literary Encounters with America in Arabic Literature "
Benjamin Lenox Smith
Granara, William E.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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803198
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| Doc. No
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TL47978
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| Call number
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1625428954; 3645067
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| Main Entry
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Ensing, Leah
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| Title & Author
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Writing Amrīkā: Literary Encounters with America in Arabic Literature\ Benjamin Lenox SmithGranara, William E.
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| College
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Harvard University
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| Date
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2014
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| field of study
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Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
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| student score
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2014
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| Page No
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257
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| Note
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Committee members: El-Rouayheb, Khaled; Granara, William E.; Naddaff, Sandra
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| Note
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Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-33542-2
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| Abstract
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My dissertation, <i>Writing Amrīkā: Literary Encounters with America in Arabic Literature</i> is an examination of this cross-cultural literary encounter primarily through fictional prose written in Arabic from the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup> century into the 21<sup>st</sup> century. The texts studied in this dissertation are set in America, providing a unique entry point into questions about how Arab authors choose to represent Arab characters experiencing their American surroundings. While each text is treated as a unique literary production emerging from a contingent historical moment, an attempt is made to highlight the continuities and ruptures that exist in both the content and form of these texts spanning a century of the Arab literary experience with America. I argue that this body of literature can be understood through its own literary history of the American encounter in Arabic literature; a literary history in dialogue with an East-West encounter that has more frequently represented the western 'Other' through European characters and locales. In focusing on the process of identification by Arab characters in America this dissertation argues that the American encounter initiates a particular ambivalence resulting in multiple, and often contradictory, identifications on behalf of the Arab characters which result in poignant crises and strained narrative resolutions.
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| Subject
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Modern literature; Middle Eastern literature; Writing; Historical text analysis; Prose; Arabic language; Literary criticism; Literature
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| Descriptor
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Language, literature and linguistics;America;Arabic;Identity;Literature;Mahjar;Travel
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| Added Entry
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Granara, William E.
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Near Eastern Languages and CivilizationsHarvard University
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