I am enjoying the discussion so far and will respond to a couple of points and questions:

1. Interesting point that we talk about Arabic texts as if they are more unified than they are, but as Mohammed points […]

Dear Katherine, thank you for bringing up an important point. The politics of selecting certain texts to be translated and marketed in the West is rather interesting, and I think a good number of scholars have […]

These are all great questions and I too have been enjoying the discussion! As someone not in Middle East Studies (rather an interdisciplinary Humanities program which is working on infusing more M.E. content into […]

Alf  salaam ya colleagues,

And thank you, Samer, for initiating this increasingly interesting discussion! I couldn’t agree more with Stephen’s comments. The study of Arabic literature (in the United States at […]

Thanks to all of your for this productive and provocative conversation. I would only like to intervene regarding Suha’s point about al-nahdah. I don’t think many folks are “cheering” al-nahdah. The *critical* turn […]

Suha, if we look more to the “literary genres that dominate the Arab street” or the maqaalatt, how do we go about finding it, especially in the US where we are so limited in Arabic translated texts?

Hello Samer and everyone in the group,

Not sure whether this is a new shift or not, but I think modern Islamic literature and fiction have  been understudied.  The impetus to cheer the Nahda  has clouded our […]

Hi Sulaiman, I think by areas, you mean area studies or regional categories, and those have become less useful over the past decades for literatures. As for literary criticism and intertextuality, what methods or […]

Hello samer,

In Arabic literature and scholarship,I value criticism  than other areas because literary criticism will give you opportunity of digging deep into the scope and manner of Arabic texts especially […]