Prophetic Translation: The Making of Modern Egyptian Literature

In this novel and pioneering study Maya I. Kesrouany explores the move from Qur'anic to secular approaches to literature in early 20th-century Egyptian literary translations, asking what we can learn from that period and the promise that translation held for the Egyptian writers of fiction at that time. Through their early adaptations, these writers crafted a prophetic, secular vocation for the narrator that gave access to a world of linguistic creation and interpretation unavailable to the common reader or the religious cleric. This book looks at the writers' claim to secular prophecy as it manifests itself in the adapted narrative voice of their translations to suggest an original sense of literary resistance to colonial oppression and occupation in the early Arabic novel.

Author: Maya I. Kesrouany
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 01/09/2019
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.30w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781474407403

About the Author

Maya Kesrouany is Assistant Professor of Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). She is interested in exploring experimental political imaginaries, conversations in the public sphere, critical theory and cultural production.