Committed to Disillusion

David DiMeo

ISBN 10: 9774167619 / ISBN 13: 9789774167614

Published by The American University in Cairo Press, EG, 2016

Can a writer help to bring about a more just society? This question was at the heart of the movement of al-adab al-multazim, or committed literature, which claimed to dominate Arab writing in the mid-twentieth century. By the 1960s, however, leading Egyptian writers had retreated into disillusionment, producing agonized works that challenged the key assumptions of socially engaged writing. Rather than a rejection of the idea, however, these works offered reinterpretation of committed writing that helped set the stage for activist writers of the present.David DiMeo focuses on the work of three leading writers whose socially committed fiction was adapted to the disenchantment and discontent of the late twentieth century: Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris, and Sonallah Ibrahim. Despite their disappointments with the direction of Egyptian society in the decades following the 1952 revolution, they kept the spirit of committed literature alive through a deeply introspective examination of the relationship between the writer, the public, and political power.Reaching back to the roots of this literary movement, DiMeo examines the development of committed literature from its European antecedents to its peak of influence in the 1950s, and contrasts the committed works with those of disillusionment that followed.Committed to Disillusion is vital reading for scholars and students of Arabic literature and the modern history and politics of the Middle East. Seller Inventory # LU-9789774167614

Synopsis:

Can a writer help to bring about a more just society? This question was at the heart of the movement of al-adab al-multazim, or committed literature, which claimed to dominate Arab writing in the mid-twentieth century. By the 1960s, however, leading Egyptian writers had retreated into disillusionment, producing agonized works that challenged the key assumptions of socially engaged writing. Rather than a rejection of the idea, however, these works offered reinterpretation of committed writing that helped set the stage for activist writers of the present.
David DiMeo focuses on the work of three leading writers whose socially committed fiction was adapted to the disenchantment and discontent of the late twentieth century: Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris, and Sonallah Ibrahim. Despite their disappointments with the direction of Egyptian society in the decades following the 1952 revolution, they kept the spirit of committed literature alive through a deeply introspective examination of the relationship between the writer, the public, and political power. Reaching back to the roots of this literary movement, DiMeo examines the development of committed literature from its European antecedents to its peak of influence in the 1950s, and contrasts the committed works with those of disillusionment that followed.
Committed to Disillusion is vital reading for scholars and students of Arabic literature and the modern history and politics of the Middle East.

About the Author: David DiMeo is an associate professor and director of the Arabic program at Western Kentucky University and has taught Arabic for over twenty years. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and an MA from Princeton University. He is co-author with Inas Hassan of The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A Guided Arabic Reader (AUC Press, 2016), and hosts the podcast The Golden Age of Islam.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Committed to Disillusion
Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press, EG
Publication Date: 2016
Binding: Hardback
Condition: New