Emerging Subjectivity in the Long 19th-Century Middle East: Philological Approaches

Stephan Guth

book: Emerging Subjectivity in the Long 19th-Century Middle East

Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2024

Emerging Subjectivity in the Long 19th-Century Middle East

Philological Approaches

Stephan Guth

Volume 51 in the series Studies on Modern Orient

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111350837

Overview
Contents

About this book

This volume revisits the “long 19^th century” in the Middle East from the perspective of emerging subjectivity as a fundamentally new attitude of the individual vis-à-vis the World. Stephan Guth’s holistic vision interprets emerging subjectivity as the key operator at the heart of the many aspects of the so-called Arab(ic) “Renaissance” (and corresponding movements in Turkish), like rationalism, critical analysis, political emancipation, reformism, moralism, and emotionalism, but also a new language, new genres, and new concepts.

Guth’s thoroughly philological approach demonstrates how a close reading of literary texts from the period, a cultural-psychological interpretation of linguistic phenomena and an etymology-informed look into conceptual terminology can contribute to a deeper understanding of what “modernisation” actually meant, deep inside the human beings’ mind and psyche, in their meeting with a rapidly changing world.

Twenty essays on language, literature, and key concepts reflect the author’s life-long engagement with the culture of the period in question. The articles are glued together by a guiding narrative that assigns each treated aspect its place in the author’s vision (which includes a global perspective).

Author / Editor information

Prof. Stephan Guth, Dept. for Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo, Norway.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Part I: Background / Settings
1 Arab perspectives on the late Ottoman Empire Open Access Download PDF	1
2 The simultaneity of the non-simultaneous Open Access Download PDF	29
Part II: Linguistic aspects The language of the Nahḍa
3 Morpho-semantic evidence of emerging subjectivity in the language of the Nahḍa Open Access Download PDF	53
Part III: Transitions: Continuity and rupture New attitudes / genres in the making
4 Adab as the art to make the right choice between local tradition and Western values: A comparative analysis of Khalīl al-Khūrī’s Way, idhan lastu bi-Ifranjī! (1859) and Aḥmed Midḥat’s Felāṭūn Beğ ile Rāḳım Efendī (1875) Open Access Download PDF	83
5 Concepts that changed the world Open Access Download PDF	117
6 What does it mean to design a plot? Open Access Download PDF	133
7 From water-carrying camels to modern storytellers Open Access Download PDF	155
Part IV: The emerging subject seeking to assert itself
8 Even in a maqāma! The shift of focus from “trickster” to “narrating subject” in Fāris al-Shidyāq’s al-Sāq ʿalà l-sāq (1855) Open Access Download PDF	193
9 The modern subject sensing its agency Open Access Download PDF	212
10 “Wa-hākadhā kāna ka-Iblīs”: Satan and social reform in a novel by Salīm al-Bustānī (Bint al-ʿaṣr, 1875) Open Access Download PDF	235
11 “Fa-ghrawraqat ʿuyūnuhum bi-l-dumūʿ...”: Some notes on the flood of tears in early modern Arabic fiction Open Access Download PDF	242
Part V: The Nahḍa at its zenith Nation building and “Yes, we can!” enthusiasm
12 A manifesto of early adab qawmī: ʿĪsà ʿUbayd’s programmatic preface to “Miss Ihsan” – Introduction and translation Open Access Download PDF	263
13 Maḥmūd Taymūr (1894–1973) Open Access Download PDF	288
14 The Modern School and global modernity: The example of an Egyptian ghost story of the mid-1920s (Maḥmūd Ṭāhir Lāshīn’s Qiṣṣat ʿifrīt Open Access Download PDF	312
15 Aspects of literary representation in Reşat Nuri Güntekin’s Çalıkuşu Open Access Download PDF	339
Part VI: From “upswing” to crisis and demise: 100 years of Middle Eastern modernity – Thematic threads
16 From the discovery of the “independent self” to its crisis: A condensed literary history of the agency of the subject in Middle Eastern modernity Open Access Download PDF	355
17 Fading trust in the Nahḍa: Three Middle Eastern utopias Open Access Download PDF	376
Part VII: Turkish parallels
18 The ‘riddle’ ʿAşḳ-ı memnūʿ: Towards assigning the S̱ervet-i Fünūn movement a place in literary history Open Access Download PDF	397
19 Early national literature in Turkey: Some authors and their novels Open Access Download PDF	414
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	427
Publication history and acknowledgments Open Access Download PDF	453
Index Open Access Download PDF	457

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars in Cultural, Literary, Linguistic History of the Middle East and Nahda Studies
Pages
- Front matter: 22
- Main content: 495
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 10
- Tables: 3
Keywords: Nahda Studies; emerging subjectivity; changing world views; Middle Eastern modernity

eBook

Published: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9783111350837

Hardcover

Published: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9783111344812