Urban Space in Contemporary Egyptian Literature: Portraits of Cairo
Part ode, part academic treatise, this book traces the transformation of Cairo’s historic downtown from its spectacular beginning as a French-inspired Belle Epoque marvel to a site of contest and, more recently, to its role as a neo-bohemian public sphere. Using the work of several Egyptian novelists, this study explores the significance of this space to ideas of modernity, class consciousness, and the anti-colonial struggle. Drawing on urban studies scholarship, Arabic literary criticism, and cultural theory, this wide-ranging work argues that a re-examination of the historic city center in the face of globalization and the ongoing fragmentation of urban space is essential to understanding what it means to be Egyptian today.
“This study adds several dimensions to our understanding of the Egyptian novel: narration of space in the novel, the representation of urban space, and the emergence of a decidedly post-nationalist form of writing. What emerges from Naaman’s discussion is that these novels are part of a definable new literary school whose sites, themes, and styles mark a radical departure from earlier ones.”
– Elliott Colla, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Georgetown University
“Urban Space in Contemporary Egyptian Literature does an admirable job of underlining the ways in which ‘a reworking of the past vis-à-vis our cities is an important part of the process in determining who we are (and want to be) in the present’”
– Arab Studies Journal
“An original, intelligent, and imaginative contribution. Naaman successfully draws the reading of contemporary Arabic literature into a broader set of concerns about modernity, national identity, class, ethnic conflict, and the experience of urban life.’”
– Timothy Mitchell, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University
“In this fascinating and well researched study, Naaman brings a host of works on heritage, nostalgia, modernity and modernization, colonialism and post-colonialism, and, of course, architecture, to bear on her analyses of portraits of downtown Cairo that emerge from four Egyptian novels. The events of February 2011 have brought this very space to the attention of a world-wide public, one that will surely gain from a reading of Naaman’s excellent study.’”
– Roger Allen, Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania