Sufism in the Contemporary Arabic Novel

by Elmarsafy, Ziad

• ISBN13: 9780748641406
• ISBN10: 0748641408
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-11-12
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

Arabic novelists are increasingly finding a source of literary innovation and political transgression in the language and ideas of mediaeval Sufi thinkers and writers. This has led to widespread instances of allusion to and adoption of the styles, language and thought of the mediaeval Sufis, seeing them as figures that explore the myriad possibilities of language and thought rather than as religious guides. More than a mere celebration of tradition or addition of local colour, the invocation of the Sufis in contemporary literature has become a way of posing difficult questions about the literature, culture and politics of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. This book will present close readings of three contemporary Arabic novelists - an Egyptian (Gamal Al-Ghitany), an Algerian (Taher Ouettar) and a Touareg Libyan (Ibrahim Al-Koni) - who have all turned to Sufism as a literary strategy aimed at negotiating issues both literary and political.

Author Biography

Ziad Elmarsafy is Reader at the University of York.